The Love Offering

In a world that expects near perfection from people in ministry, it is hard to be honest about struggles of being a pastor's wife or a woman in ministry--let alone have a sense of humor about it! Jessica Taylor, Stephanie Gilbert, and Jenna Allen are on the show sharing a safe place for pastors' wives and women in ministry to be their most authentic selves. Join us as we address topics such as how to smash stereotypes, deal with marital issues, make friends, and overcome parenting anxiety. They remind pastors' wives (and the people in their congregations) that God doesn't expect them to be superhuman. If you're a pastor's wife--by calling, by choice, or by circumstance--you'll find relief, renewal, and refreshment in today’s episode. Connect with PWTA: https://www.pastorswivestellall.com

Tired of trying to be enough? The truth is you were never meant to be, no matter what culture might tell you. Christian women today are bombarded with confusing messaging–they are supposed to do and be it all but also die to themselves. They are supposed to believe that women can do anything and also surrender everything to God. Adding to that pressure, many women feel stuck in their current reality–spinning on the hamster wheel of life. They scroll past images that tell them everyone else has it together and is experiencing a purpose-filled, adventurous, fun, loving, and God-honoring life. Overwhelmed and at a loss, most women go one of two places: defeat or self-help empowerment, even Christian self-help. Becky Kiser is on the show talking about her book But God Can. She's helping us realize this truth: on our own, we were never meant to be enough—that is the gospel message, that is why Jesus came. But God Can get you unstuck and find a purpose you have never known! You will identify the lies you've internalized, replace those with new truths, and find freedom through realistic, practical, and life-changing strategies. Join us to: find freedom from lies as she changes how she thinks, identify what God says is actually true, remember that God is more than capable of doing anything, discover how He has uniquely created her, and propel her into the abundant life of deep purpose. Tune in to realize you don't have to be enough because God is more than enough! On your own, you can't, but God totally can! Connect with Becky: @beckykiser

In an age where everyone else's successes are flaunted in front of you on social media, it can be a struggle to feel true happiness and contentment exactly where you are. Throw in difficult circumstances--loss, heartbreak, change, midlife--and it's easy to understand why you feel lonely, lost, unsure of yourself, stuck, and, if you're honest with yourself, flat-out unhappy. Sarah Bragg is on today’s episode chatting about her book Is Everyone Happier Than Me? She provides practical and relatable answers to the questions you've probably already been asking about your life, and poses a few more, to help you figure out what's standing in the way of your happiness, peace, and connection. Join us as Sarah shares the valuable lessons she's learned in her own hard seasons to help you: Identify the unhealthy habits you do when you feel unhappy and how to overcome them. Discover simple ways to find peace even in the murky middle of hard seasons. Find new ways to connect with others and yourself. Embrace exactly where you are even as you try to move forward. It's time to let go of the ideal of a perfect life and allow yourself to be a work in progress. And there's no better time to find happiness than right here in the middle. Connect with Sarah: www.sarahbragg.com @sarahwbragg

What does it look like to love in this situation? As a mother to children navigating chronic illness and a guiding beacon in healthcare leadership, Juli Boit beckons us to shatter the chains of injustice and embrace the limitless realm of mercy. In today’s episode, Juli shares about her transformative hospice leadership in Kenya. Her story challenges us to fine-tune our listening, to fearlessly confront our doubts, and to wholeheartedly recognize the shared humanity that binds us together. Through her book Brave Love, a profound revelation unfolds: love is an ever-evolving journey. Her life invites and compels us to embrace discomfort, reimagine our perspectives, and resoundingly answer love's transformative call with unswerving compassion. In a world fractured by divisions, join us to bravely love. Connect with Juli: Juliboit.com

Likely you’re a good person living a decent life, making a living and working hard. You go to church on Sundays and pray before your meals. But you have a secret, a hidden part of your life that you’d be ashamed for anyone to find out about. The thing with secrets is that they eventually come out. Instead of hiding, let’s have a difficult conversation, a real talk about secrets and shame and sex and a lot of things in between. Difficult conversations don’t have to be difficult, but they do have to be honest. In today's episode and in her book, Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Reading This, Lina shares her own struggle with sexual temptation with openness and vulnerability. She points out where the church and purity culture have failed our communities. Lina gets real about the excuses we make and the lies we tell ourselves even when our behaviors point to a larger problem. This is a no-holds-barred discussion on why Christians still struggle with sexual sin and what the church needs to be doing to support Christians and the community at large. Most importantly, you’ll see that despite our constant failures as humans, Jesus doesn’t ask us to be perfect. He just asks us to be His. If you’re going to have a difficult conversation, you might as well have it with a doctor. Connect with Lina: Livingwithpower.org

Every marriage has its strengths and its stresses. There’s not one that can’t be improved, fine-tuned, made stronger — or even overhauled if needed. Dave and Ann Wilson are on the podcast talking about the Art of Marriage, a transformative marriage resource designed to help you explore new levels of intimacy, communication, and connection with your spouse. Whether you’re a newlywed or have been married for decades, FamilyLife’s Art of Marriage is your path to a stronger, more beautiful masterpiece of God’s handiwork. Connect: FamilyLife.com

When is the last time God called you to do something that felt terrifying? When God nudges us into the unknown, it can be thrilling and exciting but also overwhelming and risky. Whether you're a stay-at-home mom, a corporate leader looking to follow God's calling, or a retiree who knows you have more to give to the world, this episode is for you. Wife, mother, Bible teacher, and entrepreneur Rachel G. Scott loves to help men and women navigate their God-given callings. In her book Taking the 5 Leaps and in today’s episode, Rachel equips us to go from delay to action. What kind of leap are you being invited to make? And how can you prepare, plan, and execute that leap? This episode outlines five types of leaps you can take using illustrations from the Bible and personal stories. Taking a risk of any kind is often accompanied with feelings of fear, uncertainty, and hesitancy. It requires courage and wisdom. In the Bible, we meet several leapers who learned to make obedience to God a non-negotiable. Rachel introduces us to biblical characters who have paved the way to lead us into a greater understanding of God's heart and intentions for modern-day leapers. This is your invitation to take the leap and partner with God in living a leaping lifestyle! Taking leaps always includes risks and tons of unknowns, but remember that the risk is worth Heaven's reward. Connect with Rachel: rachelgscott.com

Whether you’re facing the ordinary, daily pressures of squaring away today’s to-do list or an unexpected season of suffering that seems to have no end, sometimes it feels like Jesus’s promise of “overflowing joy” is simply not within reach for your real life. But it doesn’t have to be that way. By journeying with you through Jesus’s words in John 15, author and Bible teacher Tara Dew reveals three surprising paths to a truly joy-filled life. If you’re willing to take Jesus up on His teaching, you’ll find that God’s pruning, God’s presence, and God’s commands have the power to deliver not just a taste of joy as a fruit God is developing in your life, but an overflowing bushel of it! The question is, are you willing? Join us to experience a truly, fully, and genuinely joy-filled life—no matter the season or circumstance! Connect with Tara: https://www.nobts.edu/President/about-tara-dew/default.html https://prepareher.com/team/tara-bio/

The Word of God would have been extinguished thousands of years ago if not for parents passing faith down to their children. “Her children arise and call her blessed…” (Proverbs 31:28) is the legacy of a mother who has put Christ in the center of her heart and home, and who has led her children to fall in love with Him. Casey Hilty has written Her Children Arise and she is on the show sharing stories of biblical moms who remind us that the home is and has always been a mission field for mothers to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even in the throes of sleepless nights, toddler tantrums, and the challenging teen years, we can find our joy and purpose through guiding our children to see the heart of God. The secret is that it’s less about family devotions and more about our devotion to Jesus. Connect with Casey: https://www.caseyhilty.com/her-children-arise

Has your faith become stale? If you’ve been following the Lord for a while, our habits and routines can become commonplace to us, and we forget how amazing our God is! Stephanie Rousselle from The Gospel Spice is on the show today, inviting us to taste and see that the Lord is good! Through her ministry and on today’s conversation she hopes to spice up your time with God through in-depth Bible teaching. Join us in delighting in God’s glory and our practice of it. Connect with Stephanie: https://www.gospelspice.com

Most new moms know that the first year is going to be to be full of joys and challenges, peaks and valleys. But even though they've prepared themselves as much as they can, they still find themselves thinking, I knew this was going to be hard. But will it always be this hard? This wasn't what I was expecting, what if I don't know how to take care of this baby--or myself? Rachael Elmore has been there and knows on a personal and professional level how hard the early days and months of motherhood can be. In A Mom Is Born she takes her expertise as a licensed and clinical counselor and pairs it with her deeply personal story of overcoming postpartum depression after the birth of her first son. She comes alongside readers with practical tools--such as the New Mom Wellness Plan and a postpartum progress checklist--to help find the balance between taking care of their new baby and taking care of themselves. Using scripture and therapeutic insights, Elmore shows mothers how to develop a biblical plan for navigating new motherhood, the baby blues, and postpartum depression; stop intrusive thoughts and triggers in their tracks and overcome postpartum anxiety; process and manage all of the new emotions they are facing; and start implementing small acts of self-care that will lead to emotional health. A Mom Is Born gives moms the tools they need to stop spinning in the overwhelming emotions and anxieties of new motherhood and start taking care of themselves so that they can be the connected and emotionally healthy moms God designed them to be. Connect with Rachael: www.rachaelelmore.com

Life can be downright hard. Cynthia Yanof is on today’s episode inviting us to reframe our perspective on the challenges we face so we can see God at work—and laugh more along the way. In her book Life is Messy, God is Good and on today’s show, she reminds us God’s not surprised when we drop the ball, lose our cool, or struggle to put our Spanx on in the morning. He can use our ridiculous messes and even the really difficult I-didn’t-sign-up-for-this losses to shape us. Join us to discover how: We can be faithful to God’s purposes right where we are—baseball carpool, dog groomer, and even chaperoning the dreaded zoo field trip. We come to realize one of life’s greatest blessings is a handful of crazy, godly friends (who aren’t afraid to tell you to retire your outfit). When we let go of who the world says we should be, we are free to become who God created us to be. Whether you are navigating a difficult new season, working late on another deadline, or simply horrified that your morning routine now includes plucking chin hair, Cynthia offers an encouraging and hilarious reminder that God is at work in you—even in the mess. Connect with Cynthia: https://www.instagram.com/cynthiayanof https://cynthiayanof.com Messmerized podcast

Our culture has been lying to women. The world defines female empowerment as believing in yourself or looking within to find the power to succeed. But what happens when women grow weary from trying to do it all? Jesus offers a better way. Becky Beresford is on the show today and she's sharing how she used to believe and even promoted some of society’s lies to women. But in God’s kindness, Becky came to the end of herself and embraced healing truth found in the Bible. Tired and frustrated with self-dependence, Becky wants to be God-dependent. In her book, She Believed HE Could So She Did, Becky invites you to join her as she dismantles commonly held misconceptions and lies so we can live in real freedom and godly confidence. This is a brave journey toward freedom as we learn to experience Christ-centered empowerment–not by believing in ourselves . . . but by trusting in our faithful God. Join us as we chat about the most common messages promoted by our culture and dependable biblical truths grounded in the gospel: Believe in Your God vs. Believe in Yourself Speak THE truth vs. Speak Your Truth Follow Your King vs. Follow Your Heart You Be His vs. You Be You The Future is Found Together vs. The Future is Female Tune in to discover how to rely on the Holy Spirit in order to battle cultural lies, put the enemy in his place, and live boldly for Jesus. We will be lifted of the burden to find strength in ourselves and reassured of the hope, joy, and power that comes from living in Christ. We don’t have to be the savior of our own stories. Connect with Becky: beckyberesford.com

Most mothers agree that prayer is part of their parenting dynamic, yet so many mothers, including myself, wonder if the way of prayer is as mysterious and challenging as it can seem. We often wonder if we’re covering all the topics needed with this little one, and we wish we knew what to pray in the struggles in hard parenting seasons. Bethany Kimsey walked through these questions and doubts in a season with her eight children in which she desperately needed to see God at work in her children’s lives. Seeking His Word for what praying intentionally looked like began to create ~ A Warrior Mama’s Prayers. The journal walks a mother through a full year of praying specific scriptures for her child every day, month after month. These prayers are divided into 4 main themes of prayer: • Praying the Gospel take root in our child’s life • Praying for their Character • Praying for the spiritual battle around them • Praying for their future as they learn to abide in Jesus Join us as we learn to anchor our prayers in very specific promises and truths from His Word, you and I will have front row seats to watch God work in the hearts of our children. He invites us to partner with Him – what a privilege! Connect with Bethany: Bethany Kimsey (mykajabi.com)

Life rarely goes as planned, particularly when we rely on our own plans rather than God’s. So when things go awry, our faith in His faithfulness may waver. And yet God’s faithfulness is not tied to our earthly circumstances but rather to His promises in Scripture. In Everyday Prayers for Faith: Finding Confidence in God No Matter What, author Erin H. Warren unpacks the precious promises of God that are worth far more than anything this world has to offer. You will learn how God: ▫️Lifts your burdens to give you rest ▫️Provides an abundance of comfort that you can extend to others ▫️Sends rainbows and hope after every storm ▫️Shares a steadfast love that never wavers ▫️Gives us His strength to keep running the race Erin’s prayer is that by the end of this book, “women will fling their arms wide and leap forward to proclaim, ‘I trust in God!’” Connect with Erin: erinhwarren.com @erinhwarren @feastingontruth

All around the world, women yearn for a perfect life they can never grasp. They want to be successful, attractive, sexually fulfilled, and free from distress. Rather than turning to God, too many try to feast on everything under the sun—diet pills, pornography, shopping sprees, one-night stands, and social media—anything to hit that sweet spot. In the end, they are left with a deep sense of shame that can draw them further down into a spiral of bingeing, hiding, and emotional self-flagellation. They totally get Paul’s woeful lament, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). Consequently, these women build a wall between themselves and God. They fear divine retribution for their chosen form of gluttony while simultaneously operating under the false assumption that God doesn’t want to have anything to do with them. As author Angie Haskell notes in her book Sugarcoated, “This dangerous form of beratement worms its way into every facet of women’s lives. It burrows into their psyche, making them believe that demeaning treatment from others, as well as themselves, is perfectly normal. And if they dare throw caution to the wind, stepping out in their stilettos to stand up for what they need, it is often met with assumptions from others that their morals and values have flown out the window.” These women feel alone, unseen and unsatisfied, but Angie wades into their despair. Join us today as Angie empowers readers to take a hard look at their secret cravings, understand where they are coming from, and get on a path that leads to emotional and physical health. In a society that has become dangerously divisive, Angie reassures women that they’re still deserving of a relationship with God while also standing up for themselves and their needs. Connect with Angie: www.angiehaskell.com @angiehaskell

Sometimes, the women in our lives feel like enemies: The colleague who threatens your position at work. The friend who talks behind your back. The woman who seems to have it all together—while you are barely hanging on. But the real enemy is the one who is trying to defeat you with lies that lead to isolation, insecurity, and division. Jenn Schultz is on the show chatting about her book She’s Not Your Enemy. On today’s episode she is helping to equip us to battle Satan’s deception through the solid truth of God’s Word. Join us to explore: How we find true joy when we recognize our unique roles in God’s kingdom What we lose when we see other women as competition What to do about envy, jealousy, people-pleasing, and perfectionism Why we will never be “enough” on our own—and why that’s great news How our view of God affects our view of ourselves and others When we find our worth and identity in God, we can cultivate empathy and compassion for those we have labeled as the enemy—including the woman in the mirror—and live with greater joy. Connect with Jenn: Home | Jenn Schultz (jennschultzauthor.com) @jennschultzauthor

Do you feel stuck in cycles of brokenness? Many of us unknowingly repeat the mistakes of our parents and grandparents, passing on pain and suffering. No matter what has happened in the past or what mess you might be in today, you are not destined to carry on your family’s wounds, unhealthy behaviors, or toxic relationships. It doesn’t have to be this way. Your legacy can be different, and the change starts with you. Kristen Hallinan is on the show sharing the tools, truth, and hope offered in her book Legacy Changer. Join us to: - understand the brain and body science of emotional wounds. - heal from generational pain. - set boundaries in your relationships―the way Jesus did. - lead your family toward a more hopeful future. Connect with Kristen: https://www.kristenhallinan.com

In the space between no longer and not yet, you still belong somewhere. It catches most of us by surprise. Life is going along until suddenly, we find ourselves at the crossroads of what was and what is yet to be. This in-between space of transition often keeps us awake at night, asking questions like What am I supposed to do now? and Why do I feel so lost and alone? If a new direction doesn't come, it can feel like you're stuck in a cycle of purposeless days. Nicki Koziarz asked those same questions. Changes were coming in multiple areas of her life, and she struggled to navigate through them. But Nicki discovered how to find direction for today by understanding the types of seasons a transition can bring. In her book Your New Now and on today’s episode, Nicki walks us through the life of Moses from the perspective of four transition seasons he experienced: development, separation, cultivation, and finished. This episode will help you: ● Discern which transition season you're in and learn how to overcome its challenges ● Stop feeling lost in life by discovering where you belong on the road between what was and what will be ● Protect your future by learning to utilize Scripture to fight fears of the unknown Transitions start with something ending, and waiting for a new beginning can be agonizing. But you can learn to be confident and optimistic, even when life feels like it's paused in an unfamiliar now. Connect with Nicki: NickiKoziarz.com

A Little Calm Goes a Long Way with Evelyn Sherwood Life comes at us fast. Sometimes, all we need is a lifeline tossed our way, reminding us that we can make it to the other side. Breathe deep. Take it slow. Keep it steady. Evelyn Sherwood is in the show talking about her book Just Breathe to give us practices to provide breathing space for our heart and mind when life feels chaotic. We pray today's episode brings calm to your weary heart. Connect with Evelyn: https://evelynsherwood.com