Whether you’re prancing, limping, or crawling into Advent, this Scripture meditation episode is for you. We’re spending time together today in Luke 1, getting a peak into the miraculous and beautiful interaction between two amazing women of faith: Mary and Elizabeth. Join me for a 15 minute pause in your day, as we slow down and refocus around the good news of Advent.

Today we’re talking about a topic that often goes under the radar or gets misunderstood: self-harm. I’m really grateful for this week’s guest, Brittany Tinsley, who shares some of her story and experience with self-injury. We talk about themes of faith, mental health and the church, ways this topic gets misrepresented, the change cycle, and elements of healing shame, gaining compassion, and receiving support. This conversation is handled with a lot of care, and whether or not you have personal experience with this topic, I think this episode will be helpful.

Brittany is an author and recently released a new book: Stories Our Scars Tell: Hope, Healing, and Honesty about the Wounds We Carry. If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to know more of Brittany’s story, I hope you’ll go check it out!

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus!

If you were going to listen to just one episode about resilience this season, I would definitely recommend this one! Today, we’re reflecting on the reservoir that feeds our endurance, perseverance, and resilience.

In order to persist through difficulty, we must rally and borrow upon our reserves. Naturally, we have quite an amazing ability to survive and thrive, but supernaturally, we have access to an even greater Reserve.

I hope this episode is an encouragement to you and a reminder that you’re not alone.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus!

In this 15 minute soul-care reflection episode, we’ll begin with a relaxing imaging exercise and then spend time talking about a phenomenon that happens when we hit our mental and emotional limit. When we feel overwhelmed, exhausted, grieved, or trapped, our brains access what I’m calling “the escape hatch.”

I share a few examples of how this phenomenon can show up, and how recognizing this pattern in ourselves is a helpful way to notice and pay attention to our emotions and needs.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

What makes someone resilient? Would you say that you are a resilient person? In today’s episode, we’re exploring reasons why we might want to expand the way we’re thinking about resilience. In our common understanding of resilience, we might be selling ourselves and others short.

If you enjoy this episode, please go share it with a friend!

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

In Season 8, I’m trying to highlight stories of resilience and today’s story certainly does that! This is a replay biography episode from Season 2 of the podcast. Esther Ahn Kim’s story is full of bravery, perseverance, faith, and resilience. So, get in a time machine with me and let’s head back in time to 2019 when this episode originally aired. Enjoy!

Do you ever wonder how our desires and our Spiritual gifts work together? In today’s episode, we’re talking about just that! It was a joy to have my brother and sister-in-law, Nathan and Dawn Detweiler on the podcast to talk about ministry, spiritual gifts, and resilience.

Nathan, Dawn, and their three children live in Slovenia. In today’s episode, they share about their ministry journey from church planting to a children’s Lego ministry. Nathan also talks about how he started his YouTube Channel, Bite Sized Bricks.

If you’d like to learn more about Nathan and Dawn and their ministry, you can subscribe to Nathan’s YouTube Channel or you can find him on Instagram.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

Join me for 20 minutes today as we meditate together on Hebrews 12. We’ll start our time together with a slow down exercise, then read and reflect together, noticing what this passage can teach us about resilience.

I hope that this time allows you to pause in your day and reflect on the Word of God. Feel free to just listen and soak it in or to get your Bible and read along. We’ll be reading today in multiple translations: The ESV, the NIV, the Amplified Version, and the Message.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus!