Stay ConnectedMany women feel overwhelmed with the chaos of life, struggle with the fact that life, relationships and marriage are hard, and lack what they need to truly thrive.
The Thriving Beyond Belief podcast, with host, Cheryl Scruggs, and online community provide women with encouragement & support, to better manage their stress, create healthy relationships, and build a life that thrives beyond belief.
Copyright: © 2018 Thriving Beyond Belief / Hope Matters Marriage Ministries, Inc., a 501c3
Erica is an award-winning author and the founder of Every Life Ministries, bringing you the truths of Scripture to transform your life. By digging deeply into God's Word, Every Life Ministries encourages you to discover your unique purpose, accept God's promises, and live by His power. Erica is the author of three Bible studies released by Moody Publishers: An Unexplainable Life, The Unexplainable Church, and Unexplainable Jesus: Rediscovering the God You Thought You Knew.
Erica serves on the women's ministry leadership team for her church and regularly teaches in various venues. She's also taught women in the Arizona State Prison system, and overseas. She loves to bring God's Word to anyone who'll listen, whether it's a large women's conference, a church women's retreat, her own kitchen table, or across your computer screen with her teaching series or YouTube Channel. Erica is also a regular guest teacher on Bridges, an online show on the Christian Television network viewable on most cable networks, Roku, Amazon Fire, and Android TV.
A graduate and post-graduate of Azusa Pacific University, Erica lives in Phoenix with her best friend and husband, Jonathan, and their four children, only two of which are human. The others are furry and adorable.
I am so excited to have Nancy Houston with me today on Thriving Beyond Belief! We talk about a topic that is necessary in our culture today and one that is good for our hearts. We discuss intimacy within marriage!
Nancy shares her story with us and how she has gotten to where she is today. Nancy's book Love and Sex was released in February, which is the Christian guide to healthy intimacy. She wrote the book for those 18 and older to try and help others find their pathway to healthy intimacy. She is also a certified sex therapist who devotes her time to helping couples restore their relationships, seek healing and help, and to fully enjoy marriage the way God intended it to be.
Nancy had some beautiful things to say regarding her past and dealing with abuse. She reminds us that in Scripture, God shares that He is not ashamed of us or what has happened to us, but He wants to meet us and reconstruct from the ruins of our past. She also shares that we must recognize the need for healing. She discusses coming from a place to self-hatred to seeking outside help that helped reinforce that her past was not her fault and that your past is not your fault. We see that through His Word, the Lord wants to meet us in the midst of our hurt and be our great Healer.
Nancy's definition of thriving is facing our negative realities and walk through them to experience the LIFE on the other side. We have to leave our Egypt to reach our promised land. It doesn't mean it is an easy journey, but it is a worthy one. Our God wants us to thrive in this way in all areas of our life- including our sex life with our spouse!
Nancy reminds us that God specifically designed us with a purpose. He is not ashamed of sexuality because He designed us to be sexual beings that gain attachment and closeness within the bond of marriage through intimacy. He desires that your intimate life is enjoyable and strengthens the marriage! We as a Christian culture need to remember to connect our spirituality with our sexuality. Often we don't believe they are connected. But, in fact, they are stronger when they are connected.
We discuss at length those that are currently dealing with a disconnect in their marriage. Nancy discusses the scientific reasoning behind our need for attachment within marriage, what leads to breaks in the attachment, and how we can work through better communication to repair the disconnect. She encourages couples to learn to tell your spouse what you need instead of keeping score against them. Rather than blame your spouse, ask for what you feel you are lacking. She also encourages those that have tried everything and their spouse is unwilling to change to keep seeking help. Continue to pray over your marriage and tap into resources to find that intimacy again.
We end with talking about how sex in marriage was not created to be an obligation to either party, but to be a beautiful and pleasurable experience. Nancy talks through Scripture that beautifully portrays what intimacy in marriage looks like for both people, male and female.
Join me today as we gain wisdom in being healthy in every way in our marriages.
Join me this week on Thriving Beyond Belief with my guest Rachel Macy Stafford.
In LIVE LOVE NOW Stafford shows readers how to become a truth-teller, encourager and guide to help young adults through the top stressors they face today—academic pressure, parental expectations, technoference, lack of purpose, isolation and the absence of effective coping skills.
Stafford bravely and beautifully weaves in her own parenting struggles and breakthroughs throughout the book. She exposes a season of personal depletion and overwhelm that culminated when she raised a casserole dish over her head and smashed it on the kitchen counter – a scene that every adult can relate to. Stafford was relieved that her apology to her teenage daughter, who had been a witness, was met with suggestions of loving, self-care tactics – ones that Rachel had modeled countless times to her family members during their difficult times.
Stafford says, "In the face of failure, shame, and embarrassment, in times of loss and rejection, in moments of pain and trauma, our kids will recall the moments they saw us struggle. But it won't be the struggle that they will remember most, it will be the resilience, the effort, the refusal to give up and the willpower to keep trying."
Join me this week on Thriving Beyond Belief for a solo episode! Let's talk 2020, half of 2021, struggles, joys, and thriving!!
Related Links:This week on Thriving Beyond Belief, we have a special episode with Jeff and myself with Aaron and Jamie Ivey, co-authors of Complement: The Surprising Beauty of Choosing Together Over Separate in Marriage.
Related Links:In 2009, Lara Casey—PowerSheets® creator, best-selling author, and mom to three—wrote a blog post ("How to Make Things Happen") in an attempt to answer the many emails she received asking, "how do you do it all?"
The blog post received a flurry of responses, resonating with hundreds of people. It sparked a movement that turned into the Making Things Happen Conference a decade ago, where she continues to lead attendees through our proven process to uncover what truly matters to them and do something about it. Those same principles are in every page of the PowerSheets® Intentional Goal Planner, our cornerstone product that has sparked powerful and positive change in thousands of women's lives across the world.
Recognize her from somewhere else? For 10 years we published the acclaimed print magazine Southern Weddings, encouraging brides to plan meaningful celebrations and even more beautiful marriages. We were honored to partner with the best vendors in the business, including Southern Living Magazine, and to publish a beloved wedding planner you can still buy today. Though SW retired in 2018 so our team could focus on helping women cultivate what matters in every season of life, SW's legacy lives on!
This week on the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast, Paul David Tripp!
Dr. Paul David Tripp is a pastor, event speaker, and a best-selling and award-winning author. With more than 30 books and video series on Christian living, Paul's driving passion is to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.
Experience The Marriage Of Your Dreams
Paul Tripp will encourage you with what the Bible has to say about marriage:
No matter how long you have been married, you must continually realign your expectations so you aren't discouraged and disappointed by the reality of your relationship.
Learn how to treat your husband or wife with integrity and faithfulness so they fully entrust themselves to your care.
Why do couples fail to experience the marriage of their dreams? They point the finger of blame and hold grudges. Instead, discover how to fight for your relationship by practicing confession and forgiveness each day.
There are many definitions of love out there, but you only need to follow one example: the cross of Christ.
Today on the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast, Tod Jacobs and Peter Lynn from Not a Partnership!
About the Authors: Tod JacobsTod Jacobs is Director of the David Robinson Institute for Jewish Heritage in Jerusalem, which he co-founded in 2005. Prior to his current role teaching and counseling his students and alumni, he enjoyed a distinguished career on Wall Street as one of the leading authorities on the telecommunications industry globally. As a managing director at JP Morgan and before that a partner at Sanford C. Bernstein and Company, Tod acted as a frequent commentator on network television and in leading newspapers and magazines, and testified several times before the U.S. Congress as an expert on telecom and media issues. His credits in print and broadcast journalism, where he worked prior to Wall Street, include nominations for both the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism and the Emmy Award. Tod lives in Jerusalem with his family.
Dr. Peter LynnPeter Lynn has served as Dean of Students at the David Robinson Institute for Jewish Heritage since its inception. An MA in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) from the University of Pennsylvania and a PsyD in Human and Organizational Psychology, Peter lectures at Touro College in Jerusalem. He is also the Founder and Director of Greatness Within Seminars, where he helps empower individuals and organizations through the application of Positive Psychology. An accomplished athlete and Ironman finisher, Peter was captain of the U.S. World Duathlon Team. Peter lives in Jerusalem with his family.
Darryl Strawberry is described as a baseball legend by many who have been dazzled by the dynamics of his game. His many accomplishments in the major leagues include four World Series titles, eight All-Star Game appearances, and a nomination to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004. He has earned the legendary nicknames and phrases of one of the most feared homerun hitters in the game of baseball: Straw's Sweet Swing, Strawberry's Field Forever, and The Legendary Straw Man!
Though Darryl was extremely successful in his career, his personal life was plagued with addictions, abuse, divorces, cancer, jail time, and other issues. Darryl finally found true redemption and restoration in Jesus Christ.
If there's anyone who knows about redemption through God's grace, it's legendary baseball player, Strawberry's life is now filled with a blessed purpose and passion: he and his wife run an active ministry and a recovery center, and he is also an in-demand speaker across the globe. But those who know Strawberry's troubled past are aware of his very public struggles with addiction, abuse, and other destructive issues.
In his latest book Turn Your Season Around: How God Transforms Your Life, Strawberry refers to his storied sports career, as well as his redemption and restoration through faith, to emphasize that once you pursue the purposes God created you for, the results are lifechanging…and the impact is eternal.
This deeply inspirational, Scripture-filled book leans into sports themes, for as this baseball icon points out, "Sports often serve as metaphors for life. You know, like when life throws a curve ball you weren't expecting that drops perfectly across the center of your world for strike three. We've all been there…Whether or not you've ever worn a uniform for athletic competition, one thing is sure—if you're reading this book, then you're all in for this game called life."
Today, Darryl's purpose and passion is serving the Lord Jesus Christ by traveling the country, speaking a message of hope and restoration through the power of the gospel.
Welcome back everyone! Today on the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast is our guest, Kat Harris!
In Sexless in the City: A Sometimes Sassy, Sometimes Painful, Always Honest Look at Dating, Desire, and SexThe popular podcast host and founder of The Refined Woman shares how she researched, wrestled, and discovered a God who wasn't afraid or ashamed of sex and desire. Realizing countless women were dying to ask the same questions she was—and to get answers from a female who had actually walked the walk—Kat compiled her findings to empower women of faith to navigate today's dating culture with vision, clarity, and freedom.
In a culture where relationships often begin by swiping right, does biblical wisdom about sex and dating still hold water? Having grown up in the height of the purity movement, approaching 30 and fresh to the dating scene in New York City, Kat Harris wasn't so sure. Caught between the rules of her raising and popular culture's do what feels good, she set out on a multi-year journey to find answers to her biggest questions about sexuality and faith.
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