Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || If God is light and love, is He present in darkness & suffering? Darci J. Steiner is here to teach us how and why the answer to that question is a big, resounding YES.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || Instead of limiting ourselves, what if we find freedom and then learn to live in it? Every day, what if we accept the love God has for us and walk/run/rejoice/fully live with that truth as our foundation? Paul Henderson has some ideas on that, and he teaches them to us in his book, Slave No More, and in this conversation.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || Military families move at a much higher rate than non-military families. What happens to our heart during those transitions? How do military families cope with continually leaving their make-shift families every few years? Heather Eberhart walks us through logistics & a whole lot of faith to go along with a whole lot of struggle.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || At one point in her life, Dorina knew: she could be the grief lady, or she could be the glory lady. In this conversation, she teaches us what it means to be a glory chaser — to see God’s glory in our everyday lives in the big and little ways.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || Social media is a place in this world that can either be a weapon or a tool. Megan Ericson is an absolute expert in teaching us how to use it as a tool. She is the only social media know-how voice I listen to, and this conversation brings light, humor and logic to the topic of how to be a light in the world of socials.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || When I was 13 years old, I wrote in jungle-green glitter pen my plan for the next 20 years of my life. It was a good plan, except it didn’t factor in the fact that ultimately, I’m not in control. God will set forth the plan he has written for you. Julie Oyer’s story is a prime example.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || Why shouldn’t we focus on being “bathing suit ready”? Latasha Ferguson is an educator, a speaker, and a podcast host of the show Overcome to Become. The heart behind her podcast came as an overflow of her own story, part of which includes becoming a body image overcomer in order to be free to love the body gave her. Listen in as she teaches us how to do the same.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || How does a sexual assault survivor get close to God again after feeling shame & worthlessness? That’s what Emily is here to teach us. An award-winning author of the Broken Lenses series, Emily is generous with her story and helps us learn why knowing our identity is from Christ is such a game-changer.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || Alana has been around the content-creation block with blogs. Email lists. Instagram. FB groups. Podcasts. At one point, she hit pause on her blog and started podcasting… then a whooooole bunch of women wanted to know how she did it! After helping a dozen or so women at no (monetary) cost, she made a business out of helping women launch and grow their podcast. But this is about more than podcasting. It’s about asking God to help you reach the dreams He’s placed in your heart.

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || What happens when something you had planned your life around and kind of set your heart on just wasn’t happening for you, but it was happening for everyone else? What does that do to a person’s faith? Her marriage? Her sense of self and identity and security? Jenna talks to us about all that through the lens of being a mom of 5 — including a special needs child and a surprise set of twins! — after being told by infertility doctors that she’d never have a baby on her own. “I think we’re finally done proving the doctors wrong,” she says… And so much more. Listen in!

Praise Through It || Elisa Preston || What if your story brought you tragedy that you weren’t sure you could shake? Then what if—years later—God brought you to a field where someone taught you that out of land devastated by wild fires, beautiful orchids grow and flourish? Kellie Haddock talks to us about how the devastating fire is not the end of your story, and why that’s the cornerstone of her new album, Orchids From Fire.

What’s true about daily life is as it’s going by on a speed-racing conveyor belt, you’re building the life you’re going to lead in 30 years. In 30 years, you’ll have built on habit after habit and what you have is what you will have built, and I’m not talking about tangible things like a specific size house or brand of car. I’m talking about the status of your heart.

Fear propels bravery. We literally cannot have bravery without fear, because without fear there would be no reason to be brave. We have to learn how to let the fear live beside us, walk along with us, but not win the moment.

Fear propels bravery. We literally cannot have bravery without fear, because without fear there would be no reason to be brave. We have to learn how to let the fear live beside us, walk along with us, but not win the moment.

What is ‘praise’ to you?
What is ‘kindness’ to you?
What is ‘hate’ to you?

My 6yo came up with those questions, and she & I answer them. Along with a couple questions on bravery, fear, and fun.

What does it mean to number our days?
What does it mean to ‘make it count’?
What does it mean to make our days matter to us in a way that brings our heart closer to wisdom?
And what does it look like to do that with a foundation of mercy, grace, kindness, goodness, love & faith?

We have upset, upheaval, and unrest at almost every major turn in our world right now. And every keyboard warrior has the answer to every one of them.

One remedy I think we forget: friendship.

How well we would do if we leaned into that on a daily basis.

Maybe we too often fold our little-s seasons into the big-S seasons, conflating the entire season with only one feeling, assigning ourselves these absolute traits based on the ebb & flow of the human experience. Maybe we miss the fact that these little-s seasons could be STATES of our lives instead of TRAITS of our lives and our personhood.

Is there a way to feel less lonely, even in the midst of our loneliness?

I think there is, and I think the answer to that puzzle lies in our shared humanity.

How and why does God change a heart?

Why did I dream of and plan for sunshine my entire life, then be ready to move back to my snowy, cold, often sun-less hometown?

How do we know if a heart pivot should be followed?