Walking Through Grief: Coping, Comforting Kids, and Embodied Emotions :: Erin Nelson and Colleen Montague [Ep 517]

The origins of our word vulnerable are found in a Latin word that means “to wound”. We all know that to be fully known is to open ourselves up to the possibility of being wounded. When we let down our armor, when we expose the wounds of our past  as part of the healing journey is risky and scary, but my guest this week, Toni Collier, says, “Be brave.”  Be brave enough to be just who you are before God - he knows you already and loves you unconditionally. Be brave enough to be just who you are before yourself and let guilt indicate places that need to change and banish shame. Be brave enough to be who you are before safe people who can walk with you, supporting your unsteady but important healing steps. There are better, healthier relationships to be had through the healing journey. As Toni would say, “hurt and hope can coexist.” Toni Collier is a wife, mom, author, speaker, and founder of the international women’s ministry Broken Crayons Still Color which helps women process through their brokenness to get hope. Her newest book, Brave Enough to be Broken, is available wherever books are sold.   Connect with Toni Collier:  Website:  www.tonijcollier.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colliertoni  Instagram:  @tonijcollier  @brkncrayons  Podcast: Still Coloring  Links Mentioned:   Brave Enough to be Broken: How to Embrace Your Pain and Discover Hope and Healing by Toni Collier  Setting Healthy Boundaries with Family :: Dr. John Townsend [Ep 250] New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul David Tripp Related Episodes: Broken Crayons Still Color :: Toni Collier [Ep 267] Healing from Broken Friendships :: Shundria Riddick [Ep 321] How to Help a Friend Process Life [Ep 359] Be Vulnerable, Find Your People :: Jennie Allen  [Ep 354] Featured Sponsors:  Find links to this week’s sponsors and unique promo codes at dontmomalone.com/sponsors.

21 Nov 202249min

“Good fences make good neighbors” is a line from Robert Frost’s Mending Wall, but the poem goes on to say, “Before I built a wall I'd ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out”  So often in our lives we feel the unrest of chaos or dysfunction in our relationships, but we don’t know exactly what we need to wall out or wall in. My guest this week, Lysa TerKeurst faced a new season of life and wanted to enter it with wisdom and strength - caring for others and herself in each of her relationships. Her personal journey led to her newest book, Good Boundaries and Goodbyes, a guide for each of us as we navigate relationships, practice setting healthy boundaries and even sometimes need to say goodbye.  Connect with Lysa TerKeurst:  Website:  https://lysaterkeurst.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialLysa  Instagram:  @lysaterkeurst  Links Mentioned:   Good Boundaries and Goodbyes : Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are by Lysa TerKeurst    Setting Healthy Boundaries with Family :: Dr. John Townsend [Ep 250] Leslie Vernick and Difficult v Destructive Relationships - https://leslievernick.com  Therapy and Theology Podcast  Related Episodes: Setting Healthy Boundaries with Family :: Dr. John Townsend [Ep 250] Forgiving What You Can’t Forget :: Lysa TerKeurst [Ep 304] 5 Schedule Sappers and How to Stop Them :: Lysa TerKeurst [Ep 45] Uninvited :: Lysa TerKeurst, Kay Wyma and Courtney DeFeo [Ep 131] Featured Sponsors:  Find links to this week’s sponsors and unique promo codes at dontmomalone.com/sponsors.

14 Nov 202240min

Grief has been called the unwanted visitor - it shows up when you don’t want it and it often stays longer than we would want. In the midst of seasons of suffering or grieving it’s so easy to feel isolated and to be isolated, the weight of bringing our real selves into community feeling like another burden to bear. Whatever dreams we might have had of how our life we go or what it would look like for us to serve God and others seem to be an impossibility.  Meet my guest this week, Lindsey Wheeler. For over a decade Lindsay and her family have fought through her chronic illness and fought for her special needs daughter. She has felt the sting of isolation and the deep relief and joy of true community. In the midst of it all she has found a way to serve others and share God’s gentle love for them by sitting with them in their grief. Through her small business, Bottle of Tears (see discount code below), she reminds others they are seen in their grief - by her, by God, by a loved one that would send one of her precious vintage bottles.  Connect with Lindsey Wheeler:  Website:  https://www.bottleoftears.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bottleoftears  Instagram:  @bottle_of_tears  Links Mentioned:    IF: Gathering  DMA listeners special code for Bottle of Tears: DONTMOMALONE20 for 20% off any order through January 31, 2023. Related Episodes: Adopting Special Needs :: Candace and Alice [Ep 213] Life Giving Faith in Every Circumstance :: Lisa Appelo :: Summer of Mentorship Week 2 Be Vulnerable, Find Your People :: Jennie Allen [Ep 354] Featured Sponsors:  Find links to this week’s sponsors and unique promo codes at dontmomalone.com/sponsors.

7 Nov 202252min

“Deck the Halls with Chaos and Unmet Expectations” - not the traditional words to the song but maybe more accurate?  Advent is celebrating Jesus coming into our everyday life, meeting us humans in the spaces where we are. My guest this week, Mindy Rives, reminds us that our activities to celebrate Advent should be just that - woven into our everyday life. But so often we get buried in “failed” activities or the season zooms past us.  Mindy’s excellent planning tool, Advent Prep Club, will help you find all sorts of activities from free or inexpensive things to more involved activities, with plenty of space to add in your holiday traditions.   Connect with Mindy Rives:  Website:  https://adventprepclub.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventprepclub  Instagram:  @adventprepclub    Links Mentioned:    DMA Discount Code for 15 % off Advent Prep Club: DONTMOMALONE   Related Episodes: Celebrating Advent :: Tsh Oxenreider [Ep 305] Christmas Traditions with Little Ones :: Jacki Rucksdashel [Ep 142]  Santa or No Santa :: Ep 306 Featured Sponsors:  Find links to this week’s sponsors and unique promo codes at dontmomalone.com/sponsors.

31 Okt 202241min

The Chosen has taken the world by storm. It’s the largest fan supported entertainment project of all time with over 408 million views on its app alone. It’s a show about the Bible, about Jesus written from the unique perspective of the people Jesus chose to be around. It showcases Jesus’ incredible love and puts us the viewer right into the daily life of Jesus’ disciples and friends.  Join Heather as she speaks with cast members and writers and more on The Chosen’s impact on their own lives and people around the world.  Connect with The Chosen Series:  Website:  https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InsideTheChosen/  Instagram:  @thechosentvseries  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChosenSeries  TikTok: @thechosentv  Links Mentioned:    Unfiltered: Gen Z Reacts to The Chosen  Buy your tickets starting Oct 25th for the Season 3 World Premiere on Nov 18th  Related Episodes: Media, Imagination, & the Kingdom of God :: Erick Goss [Ep 136] Doubt, Questions & Your Teen’s Growing Faith :: Mary Jo Sharp [Ep 375]  Featured Sponsors:  Find links to this week’s sponsors and unique promo codes at dontmomalone.com/sponsors.

24 Okt 202254min

Do you view other moms as collaborators or competitors? Whether it’s our achievements or our difficulties we often compare ourselves to other moms rather than come alongside them (or even celebrate them - gasp!).   My guests this week say it this way -  “[we] are committed to choosing collaboration over competition and running far from that scarcity mentality that there's just not enough at the table. Instead, we're just building a bigger table.”  Jessica is the founder of Noonday Collections and her business partner Liz Bohannon founded Sseko and they are joining forces to become the world’s largest fair-trade fashion selling brand. They encourage us that joining together as moms doesn’t deplete our resources but actually multiplies them.  Connect with Liz & Jessica:  Website:  https://www.noondaycollection.com  https://ssekodesigns.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noondaycollection https://www.facebook.com/ssekodesigns  Instagram:  @jessicahonegger   @lizbohannon  @noondaycollection @ssekodesigns Twitter: @noondaystyle  Links Mentioned:   Become an Ambassador! (Get a heart to heart necklace AND join Liz, Jessica and I for a virtual happy hour!!) Sign up here and in the drop down menu on how you were connected select “Don’t Mom Alone”.  Noonday Collection https://www.noondaycollection.com   The Best of You: Break Free From Painful Patterns, Mend Your Past, and Discover Your True Self in God by Dr. Alison Cook Related Episodes: Winning Together as Co-Laborers :: Heather MacFadyen[Ep 367] Be Vulnerable, Find Your People :: Jennie Allen [Ep 354] Relationships You Need to Be the Mom You Want to Be :: Heather MacFadyen [Ep 341] Friendship is Hard :: Amy Weatherly and Jess Johnston [Ep 350]  Featured Sponsors:  Find links to this week’s sponsors and unique promo codes at dontmomalone.com/sponsors.  Moms making a difference: join our bakery project. Click here to contribute to our goal of raising $12,400 to equip a bakery for 125 women in Guatemala.

17 Okt 20221h 2min

It’s been pointed out that if you want to make anything scary or negative, put “teenage” in front of it. For example, teenage driving, teenage parties, teenage sex, teenage thinking.  One of our main jobs as parents is to help our kids grow into functioning adults who make their own decisions. In order to do that, we have to give our kids freedoms to practice making their own decisions in meaningful ways.  Dr. Ken Wilgus is a father, author, and licensed psychologist with many years of helping parents and young adults navigate the teen years. He tells us that our teens want to know they can actually grow up in our house - to begin experiencing the freedom (and responsibility) of being an adult while still under our care. Though he isn’t promising us an easy ride, Dr. Wilgus encourages us that if we do that it will actually foster more attachment and connection with our teenagers.  Connect with Dr. Ken Wilgus:  Website:  http://www.drwilgus.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/feedingthemouthPodcast  Instagram:  @feedingthemouth    Links Mentioned:   Feeding the Mouth That Bites You: A Complete Guide to Parenting Adolescents and Launching them Into the World by Ken Wilgus, PhD.  Feeding the Mouth That Bites You Podcast    Related Episodes: Doubt, Questions, & Your Teen’s Growing Faith :: Mary Jo Sharp [Ep 375]  Understanding Your Developing Teen :: Dr. Nell Bush [Ep 351]   Compassion Causes:  Join our DMA community and help 125 women in Guatemala become financially independent by funding the equipment for a bakery!! Click here to join us and raise $12,400.  Featured Sponsors:  Find links to this week’s sponsors and unique promo codes at dontmomalone.com/sponsors.

10 Okt 202250min

What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit? To encounter or experience the Holy Spirit? How does he speak to us? Does he speak to us?  Western cultures tend to operate under the assumption that if we can’t explain it, it isn’t real. My guest this week gives us hope beyond what we can understand. Author and pastor Max Lucado encourages us that God wants to guide us and speak to us and reminds us that the Holy Spirit was given to us as believers to guarantee our arrival one day in heaven. He shares some of his own experience and what it’s like to hear from God by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you are looking for empowerment in motherhood and strength for difficult days and decisions, Max Lucado is encouraging you to “open yourself to the possibility that the greatest power in the universe is alive and well accessible to you wherever you are.” Connect with Max Lucado:  Website:  https://maxlucado.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maxlucado  Instagram:  @maxlucado Twitter: @maxlucado YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MaxLucadoOfficial  Links Mentioned:   Help is Here: Finding Fresh Strength and Purpose in the Power of the Holy Spirit by Max Lucado  Cru Spiritual Gifts Quiz   Related Episodes: You Are Never Alone :: Max Lucado [Ep 298] Parenting in the Power of the Holy Spirit :: Jeannie Cunnion [Ep 347]  Featured Sponsors:  Find links to this week’s sponsors and unique promo codes at dontmomalone.com/sponsors.

3 Okt 202253min