A child suffers multiple forms of abuse from her father from the time of being a little girl to a young woman. Is there any hope for not just surviving but thriving? Jennifer Greenberg proclaims there is. Jennifer knows the isolation and grief of abuse at the hands of her church-going father. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Jenn doesn’t flinch in talking through how she wanted to kill herself when she was 15 because her father’s abuse read more…
Read MoreWhat do you do when you are suddenly navigating a life you didn’t sign up for? Lisa Appelo understands deeply. She’s experienced the raw emotions and uncertainty that come when everything falls apart. Lisa went to bed married and woke up a widow and single mom to seven children. She wrestled read more…
Read MoreIs singleness a gift or a curse? If you’re single because you never married, divorced or widowed - are you just in a waiting room, marking time until you meet the right person, or is singleness a place filled with opportunities you would not have if married? Is it wrong to pray for a spouse? How do you respond when well-meaning friends say hurtful things like, “I don’t understand why some guy hasn’t snatched
Read MoreHelp! I’ve Been Diagnosed with a Mental Illness! The words, “You have a mental illness” bring fear, uncertainty, sometimes shame, loneliness, and even hopelessness. Christine Chappell heard those words as a young woman. They helped her understand many of her struggles with depression and self-harming behavior but also took her into a foreign land where she had no road map. Christine talks to Sharon Betters about how her journey began as a young adult until she knew if she didn’t get help, she might take her own life. While her diagnosis helped make sense of her disturbing emotions, it also confronted her with
Read More“Who am I? What is my purpose? I thought I could have it all and I do. But I am restless, I feel like I’m missing something.” Statistics show many American women are weary, struggle with depression, and self-medicate with alcohol, flattery, and more. Suicide rates for women are on the rise. What’s happening? More
Read MoreFor too long women, rather than feel safe, women often feel shame in their local churches, so much so that they will not ask the leadership for help. The idea of speaking about her personal needs and hurts to any man, let alone being in a room alone with a group of men fills her with fear. This conversation with Ann Maree Goudzwaard, Sharon Betters and Jane Anne Wilson fills us with great hope as we learn about a Shepherdess ministry designed to not only create a safe place for women in crisis but also act as a
Read MoreChuck and Bernie discuss how many churches are ill-prepared to come alongside of women in crisis but how the scriptures outline the way to meet these needs. Bernie speaks from the experience of helping oversee such a ministry in his local church. He shares how the leadership recognized the need to make the church a safe place for women and then enlisted women to help develop a strategy for meeting this dire
Read MoreMention “fear of the Lord” and most people don’t know what it means. Is it terror in God’s presence? Is it fear He is watching and waiting to condemn us or tell us what a good person we are? Or maybe the Lord will demand we give up what is most precious to us to prove we fear Him. Or perhaps fear of the Lord grows when we think He is punishing us for past sins. In this
Read MoreDiscontent easily arises when our desires aren’t met and our plans don’t come true—but this is a dangerous path that drives us away from God. Megan Hill talks with Sharon Betters about how discontentment can be an insidious, unrecognized poison that robs us of opportunities to experience joy and intimacy with the Lord. Megan explains the meaning of contentment, how we often make discontentment comfortable in our
Read MoreSometimes one of the hardest places in suffering is the isolation and loneliness of pain. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Wendy Alsup shares how suffering came in wave after wave, leaving her breathless and lonely. In one particularly dark and painful period after intense surgery for cancer, Wendy discovered she was not truly
Read MoreIn this conversation with Sharon Betters Elyse Fitzpatrick describes how a difficult time in her life resulted in her longing for something more. She concluded she was homesick for heaven. Elyse helps us better understand how a biblical view of heaven can be a source of great comfort when life turns upside down.
Read MoreWhile most do not experience motherhood as a crisis, every mother has experienced periods of weariness, frustration, regrets – and shame because we just don’t feel like we’re enough for the tasks at hand. In this conversation with Sharon Betters and Melissa Weisenfels, Christina Fox, a mother herself, encourages us that there is minute by minute help and hope for mothers, no matter what season of life. Christina has a special love for mothers struggling to find hope in those especially hard days and shares her love in her book Sufficient Hope, Gospel Meditations and Prayers for Moms.
Read MoreWe’re all waiting for something. It might be a spouse or a baby. It might be healing or a home. Regardless of what we're waiting for, it’s easy to feel discontent when things aren’t going as planned and our dreams are delayed—especially when questions of 'Why?' and 'How long?' remain unanswered. God uses seasons of waiting not only to teach us patience and make us more like Himself, but He also uses unmet longings to paint a powerful picture of the bride of Christ waiting for the day when He returns and God’s kingdom reigns.
Read MoreIn this poignant conversation Claire describes how her birth mother told her about the abortion, Claire’s response to the news, and how she is watching the Lord bring beauty from ashes as she shares her story across the country as a means of showing a real life baby is the victim of abortion.
Read MoreWhether you are in a waiting room right now because of cancer, stroke, traumatic injury, a child struggling to hold on to life, a health crisis of any kind, you know the emotions of waiting – fear of the unknown, sadness over knowing life will never be the same, anger – you name it. Yet in the midst of it all, Elizabeth reminds us of the certain hope and peace of the gospel.
Read MoreBill Tell experienced severe burnout and depression without warning and he discovered he could not “pull himself up by his own bootstraps”. Depression was like the hand of a giant pushing him deeper and deeper into darkness he could not fight on his own. Bill’s honest account of this lonely and dark time encourages each of us to review the grid through which we live life.
Read MoreIn this conversation Sue Tell shares about her reaction to her husband Bill’s severe burnout and depression. After over forty years of serving in ministry, Bill suddenly slid into a dark pit of depression. He was incapable of “pulling himself up by his own bootstraps”. Sue describes how their lives dramatically changed and their struggles brought new depth to their marriage.
Read MoreBob Petterson was abandoned by his mother, shifted from one abusive foster home to another, bullied not only by kids but by some of his foster parents, beaten and sexually assaulted by numerous people tasked with being his protectors. Is there any hope for such a child? Bob shares how he grew into a hope-filled man who learned to trust God.
Read MorePost Abortion Stress Syndrome, though not recognized in the medical community, is a real diagnosis in which thousands of women and men live with guilt, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and more in the aftermath of abortion. In this interview, Jill, a woman who has had four abortions, offers her story as a means to encourage women and men to discover the healing that is possible.
Read MoreSuicide was on teen Denise Haas’ mind a lot, so much so that she tried several times to take her life. Her parents’ divorce shattered her world and finding purpose in life was very difficult. In this compelling conversation, Denise transparently shares her story in an attempt to grab the hands of teens who are struggling with similar darkness and compel them to “just hold on!”
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