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
Army veteran Fernando Arroyo considers himself privileged to serve veterans struggling with different issues ranging from PTSD, drug addiction, and homelessness. His job is to provide veterans with pastoral counseling and to walk alongside them as they regain sobriety and control of their mental health.
In his powerful new memoir, The Shadow of Death: From My Battles in Fallujah to the Battle for My Soul, Arroyo details his career in the military, as well as his crisis of faith: "I went from feeling invincible to feeling completely broken. There was only one person to blame for all of this, and it was God. God took the woman I loved away from me, God kept me from getting out of the Army, and God was making me feel miserable. I was angry with God—and meanwhile I had to train for war."
FERNANDO'S LINKS:
SHOW LINKS:Dr. Kim Allen is an accomplished professional in Information Technology, Education, and Spiritual Leadership. With specialties in planning, professional development, adult education, and small group leadership, she develops and presents curricula, mentors women who need technical skills to return to the workplace and assists other spiritual leaders in facilitating life-changing materials. Dr. Allen has provided curriculum resources worldwide.
Kim is a graduate of the Executive Leadership for Information Technology Excellence (ELITE) program sponsored by the Governor's Center for Information Technology Professionals in the state of Texas. She also participated in developing the State of Texas Strategic Plan for Network Resources. Dr. Allen participated in the review of the State of Texas high school Computer Science curriculum for textbook adoption.
Through experiences she never believed possible, God used her unique understanding of business principles and attention to detail to advance her career and relationships simultaneously. Her dreams now continue to include adult education and leading small groups. As a Christian businesswoman, God opened many doors and used others to speak truth into her life while mentoring her to bravely face challenges in her educational endeavors, overcome adversity, and help others work toward spiritual transformation. While Dr. Allen has facilitated and presented in large groups, her passion is in small-group settings.
Kim and her husband enjoy traveling, fishing, and the beauty of nature found in outdoor activities. However, she considers her most significant accomplishment is seeing transformation in the lives of others.
GUEST LINKS:
Today's episode is about mentally thriving! What does that mean?
You can live an abundant life in every area and in every season. You can practice the lost arts of being a vibrant human being. You can be energized and enjoy more of what matters most spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, and relationally.
The closer a courageous, rooted, and thriving woman gets to realizing her life's purpose, the more she understands that abundant living is nothing like what she once thought it was. It's not perfect circumstances; it's perfect peace within those circumstances. This book gives women practical tools to improve every relationship they have by doing the hard work of knowing "the real you" and learning to be vulnerable. Deep satisfaction comes from women knowing who they are, overcoming their fears, facing the difficult stuff of life, and making lasting change. And it all starts with the journey of knowing and understanding who God made them.
No matter where you've come from, what you've experienced in the past, or the mistakes you've made—you can learn to thrive the rest of your life.
LINKS:Debra Fileta is a passionate woman of faith, dedicated to Jesus. As a licensed professional counselor, speaker, and author, she specializes in dating, marriage, and relationship issues. Debra has written several books, including True Love Dates, Choosing Marriage, Love in Every Season!, Are You Really Ok?, Married Sex, and RESET. She hosts the Love + Relationships Podcast, offering relationship advice to callers. Her influential blog, TrueLoveDates.com, promotes healthy relationships and reaches millions annually. Debra is also the founder of the Debra Fileta Counselors Network, offering online counseling sessions.
LINKS:Kathy DeGraw is a prophetic deliverance minister releasing the love and power of God. She loves to ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies and deliver people from the bondage of the enemy. In her meetings, the glory of God appears and people are supernaturally healed and delivered as the Word of God goes forth and is preached!
She is the founder of Kathy DeGraw Ministries and K Advancement LLC. She enjoys traveling internationally, releasing the love and fire of the Holy Spirit, teaching believers how to walk in the fullness of God and release their prophetic potential. She uses her prophetic anointing to deliver people from the powers of darkness and goes deep in the ministry of deliverance eradicating strongholds, exposing the root causes and legal rights of the enemy, and evicting evil principalities.
Kathy hosts a weekly podcast show on the Charisma Podcast Network called Prophetic Spiritual Warfare that has reached hundreds of thousands of people. Kathy is a prophetic voice and writer on The Elijah List, Charisma Magazine, Prophecy Investigators, and Spirit Fuel. She has a clear and unique gift of discernment and operates in a strong prophetic, healing and deliverance anointing. She has published several books including her most recent book, Prophetic Spiritual Warfare! Kathy has also written, Unshackled, Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan, SPEAK OUT, and more!
Kathy is married to her best friend, Pastor Ron DeGraw, and is a mom to three adult children, Dillon, Amber (son-in-law, Josh) and Lauren (and son-in-law, Alex). She is also fond of her Golden Retriever puppy, Shiloh. They reside in Michigan.
Empowering women to embrace their Mid-Life years, obstacles give us reasons to embrace joy, and the little things we do to love ourselves matter.
"I'm ridiculously passionate about working with women. I have the privilege of coaching them to levels of success in their personal and professional lives that transcends their wildest dreams. Before I decided to dive into this joy thing full time, I was a top ten sales director for one of the world's biggest direct sales brands (my last team hit a million in sales for the year — yay us!). Now my opportunities to empower women take many different forms.
I'm an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mentor. I work in person and online, with individuals, small groups, and auditorium-sized crowds. I'm proud to use the experiences of my personal journey to help others find happiness and success even in the darkest of days. I wholeheartedly believe that the obstacles in our lives should not beat us down, but give us reasons to more fully embrace joy wherever we can find it.
Best of all, I'm arm candy to Craig (it might be kind of like a big bag of cotton candy but close enough); I'm a mom to two awesomely cool females (who are 17 years apart!) and a grandmother to four. We are living happily ever after in Cantonment, Florida, with four dogs, three cats, three horses and a partridge in a pear tree.
We all need more joy. I have found joy in places you'd think it was unfindable — despite the pain of losing a child, divorce, rape, stage 3 cancer and more. I want to share my stories with you because I have discovered how joy is a choice that makes life worth living."
LINKS:Rhonda Stoppe is an author and speaker dedicated to helping women live life with no regrets. With over 30 years experience as a mom, mentor, and pastor's wife, Rhonda's wisdom and experience will help you:
David Pruitt is a first-generation college graduate from UNC-Greensboro and previously served on the advisory board for their Bryan School of Business. A licensed CPA and a member of the AICPA and NCACPA, David started his business career in an entry-level accounting position before advancing to first CFO, then CEO, of Performance Bike, for a time the largest cycling retailer in the United States. As a senior leader in the U.S. bicycle industry, he served on the board of "People for Bikes," a national organization with 1.3 million members that work to make riding a bicycle in America safer, easier to access, and more fun. He is an avid reader, a happily married husband for over thirty years, and a proud father of two successful children. He currently resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
David retired from corporate America in 2016 and began writing Relative Distance. His early life as an abused child taught him how to overcome obstacles and his successful career as a senior executive taught him how to lead and communicate effectively as a writer and speaker. He has a passion and ability to not only tell his story but to help adults, young and old, who were abused as children to live the lives they want, not the ones forced on them.
That's what his book Relative Distance is all about: survival, overcoming obstacles, and finding the strength within yourself to get where you want to be.
DAVID'S LINKS:Ali Miller, RD, LD, CDE is a Registered Dietitian with a naturopathic background and a contagious passion for using nutrients and food as the foundation of treatment protocols and programs. She is the author of international best seller The Anti-Anxiety Diet, as well as The Anti-Anxiety Diet Cookbook, and Naturally Nourished: Food-As-Medicine for Optimal Health.
Her Food-As-Medicine philosophy is supported by up-to-date scientific research for a functional, integrative approach to healing the body. Ali is a certified diabetes educator (CDE) and renowned expert in the ketogenic diet with over a decade of clinical results using a unique whole foods approach tailored to support thyroid, adrenal and hormonal balance.
With a mission deeply rooted in the sustainability of our food systems, Ali teaches clients to navigate beyond corporate manipulation and diet trends with an "outside the box" approach to healthy eating. She promotes clean eating and works to unveil the hidden truth of toxins in our food system while sharing the significant health benefits of consuming local, organic, and wild, pasture-raised foods. Ali applies scientifically supported plant and bio-compounds to enhance a patient's treatment outcomes while reducing medications and their undesired side effects.
I am passionate about using functional medicine approaches to empower you to understand the root causes of imbalance within your body. When we address the reason for undesired symptoms and use diet, lifestyle, and targeted nutritional supplementation we are able to work upstream on a path of resolution while promoting a synergy of positive outcomes!
ALI'S LINKS:Mike Donehey has seen his fair share of the unexpected. Following a potentially fatal car crash as a teen, Mike learned to play the guitar while still in bed recovering from his injuries. Learning the guitar quickly gave birth to songwriting, and that songwriting quickly led to the formation of a band.
That band, Tenth Avenue North, became one of the most loved and successful artists in Christian music. Beginning with their acclaimed national debut, Over and Underneath, Tenth Avenue North's audience multiplied with each new album and hit song, like radio favorites "Love Is Here," "By Your Side," "You Are More," "Losing," "Worn," "I Have This Hope," and multi-week no. 1 smash "Control (Somehow You Want Me)."
At the beginning of 2020, despite widespread notoriety and a devout following, Tenth Avenue North's members began to sense they each had their own unexpected and unique roads to follow. Mike has seized this opportunity, reveling in the excitement to expand as a storyteller, communicator and thought instigator wherever his voice is heard.
Mike's acclaimed book, Finding God's Life for My Will, was an immediate best-seller upon its release. It is soon to be followed by his next book, Grace In The Gray, releasing in January 2023.
Mike's podcast, Chasing the Beauty, looks for the joy of God in the places we didn't think it could be on the AccessMore network.
Perhaps most exciting has been Mike's writing and producing new music. His acclaimed solo album Flourish is just the beginning of the flow of new music coming our way.
The unexpected has a way of disrupting our lives in ways we might not have ever chosen. For Mike, learning to embrace the unexpected has been the very thing that has brought forth encouraging and soul-healing art time and time again. Looking forward, Mike is trusting to be led in any way that will allow him to continue to serve and inspire.
MIKE'S LINKS:
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
