It can feel awkward knocking on a neighbor's door. Even more so if small talk is not your thing. For introverts the desire to love others well must be balanced with their own need for alone time to refuel. Kendra Broekhuis went into a 30-day challenge to love her neighbors unaware that her introverted tendencies would be significant. Until they were.
Listen to his interview with fellow introvert (and fellow INFJ) Alex while Krista, the extrovert in the threesome, digs in. From the benefits to living in an apartment building to moving relationships from the casual to the intentional, everyone will be able to relate to the desire for connection wherever we're placed.
You'll hear Kendra's actual life, the voices of her small children, chorusing in the background as she talks with The Open Door Sisterhood about hosting when you're not a cook, finding commonalities as starting places for new relationships, and reaching past them to make friends who are a reflection of God's diverse creation.
If we could figure out the formula for how to be happy and execute that equation everyday we would. But happiness isn't quite that easy. There are many facets to what creates a happy life, a happy mind, and a happy environment. It is one of the most universally desired emotions, and yet one of the hardest to achieve.
Happiness expert, and author of The Happiness Dare, Jennifer Dukes Lee, joins me on this episode to break down the question, what exactly is happiness and how do we get it? What elements in life create happiness, and which ones destroy it? What does God have to say about happiness? We hear all of the time, "God is more concerned with our character than our comfort," so doesn't that mean He doesn't really care if we are happy? We talk about these questions and more.
Jennifer also walks us through her happiness quiz. Learn to identify your happiness style and why that is important as you relate to the world and people around you. You may be surprised at what makes you feel truly happy!
Sarah Jakes Roberts grew up in the spotlight. As the daughter of Bishop T.D. Jakes her teenage insecurities were fueled by living in the public eye. She became pregnant at 13, had her baby at 14 and began her parenting journey. Now the mom of 6 with her husband Touré Roberts, Sarah is maneuvering the life of a blended family while co-pastoring their own church in Hollywood, CA.
In this episode Sarah's life experience is evident. Her wisdom is clear as she talks through how to find your place as stepmom (and how to support your children's stepmom), what it means to teach kids about healthy boundaries through living in overflow, and the need to "forgive and remember" in order to prevent entering into familiar yet unhealthy patterns. Her tone is warm and her words ring of truth. You can tell she wants the best for women and uses honesty about her own life as a starting place to talk through choices and responses.
This transparent conversation with Sarah is quintessential Open Door Sisterhood because it is both practical and inspirational. You will leave feeling understood, spurred on to do better, with some practical approaches to facing the uncomfortable in order to thrive. This isn't a show about skimming over the issues, but rather recognizing the pain that might be hidden and how it informs our decisions today.
Though Esther Fleece is in one of the happiest seasons of her life, having just exchanged wedding vows only a couple of months ago, this wasn't always the case. Abandoned by both of her parents by the time she was a teenager, Esther is no stranger to deep and profound loss.
With heart-breaking honesty, Esther opens up about a pivotal moment in her childhood when she was positioned in a court room to divide her parents. This set her on a course to hide her pain, pretend she was okay, and "suck it up." And she did... for many years.
After traveling the world with a well known organization, speaking to large crowds, and climbing the ladder in her career, Esther's world came crashing down when she could no longer run from the painful past that haunted her. It was then that she went on a journey that led her to the language of lament.
In the interview we not only talk about her personal story, but also discuss what lament is, why we need it, and how it heals us. We also dive into what mental illness does to a family, why the church must be careful about what it says about pain and loss, and how we can use scripture to guide us toward wholeness.
This interview invites us into the language of lament and how we can learn to speak it in our own lives. Join us!
Culture is talking about sex. The music and movie industry is talking about sex -- all.the.time. Is the church? Are we communicating enough about what healthy sex looks like in marriage? Real-life sex, not just how it is portrayed on the silver screen.
Do men have a greater sex drive than women? What is mutual sex? How is pornography affecting the marriage bed? How do we have honest conversations with our spouse about this topic? What is the deal with the 50 Shades craze? Krista covers all of this and more with guest Dorothy Greco.
Dorothy Littell Greco is a photographer, writer, and author. She writes on how following Jesus changes everything in places such as Christianity Today and Relevant Magazine. Her first book, Making Marriage Beautiful, was released at the beginning of 2017.
Listen in on our conversation today about how to improve sex in marriage in order to breathe new life into our primary relationship.
Jessie Minassian just made a big move and finds herself nestled in the middle of a national forest, hours from anything more than a country store. Her relocation to Hume Lake with her family was a big transition, but an answer to her prayer of "Lord send me". A woman willing to join God in what he is already doing, this is just one ways that Jessie has said "yes" in recent years to the open door in front of her.
Jessie's warmth shines through our conversation as she talks through parenting teenagers, writing Bible studies, and transitioning her own girls out of homeschooling. Her desire to walk through the doors God opens, whatever they might be, is evident in every aspect of her life. She is a woman who loves a good pen and Amazon Prime, and maybe, just maybe, sunbathes on her dining room table (you'll need to listen to the end to hear about that).
You won't want to miss this delight of a mom, friend and sister that joins us for this round of The Open Door Sisterhood Podcast.