A Heart That Beats for Home

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. Biblical Resources for Families: Favorite Children's Bibles: The Biggest Bible Story: https://amzn.to/3uHo1o5 The Biggest Bible Board Book Version: https://amzn.to/3ThT2YU The Biggest Bible Story Storybook: https://amzn.to/4bYDEbx The Jesus Storybook Bible: https://amzn.to/3UT37Nm Seeds Family Worship Music: https://seedskidsworship.com/pr...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. This week on A Heart That Beats for Home , I’m joined by Ryann Bauer for one of the most powerful and important conversations we’ve had on the podcast. Ryann shares her deeply personal story of childhood abandonment, depression, self-harm, and becoming a young mom, and how God slowly redeemed her pain and turned it into purpose. What began as h...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. This week’s episode is one of the most meaningful conversations I’ve ever shared on the podcast. In honor of Mother’s Day, I’m sitting down with my own mom, Monique, for a conversation about motherhood, faith, marriage, family, loss, legacy, and the beauty found in ordinary everyday life.  My mom was married at 18 years old and went on to raise...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. This week’s episode is a continuation of a conversation that I truly believe every parent of teens and young adults needs to hear. After revisiting one of the very first episodes of this podcast last week, I was reminded just how relevant these principles still are, and how much they continue to shape the way I parent today. So this week, we’re...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. This week’s episode is a little different, and one I’m really excited to bring back. As I was preparing to record a new episode on the topic of principles vs. preferences in parenting, I went back to revisit what I had already shared in the very early days of this podcast… and I was reminded just how much this conversation still matters. In fac...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. As this episode goes live, I’m celebrating my 48th birthday, and I felt a strong pull to pause what I had planned and just sit down for a real, honest conversation with you. Looking back over the last 48 years, one thing is so clear: life is not a straight line. It’s a mix of seasons. Seasons of soaring and seasons of struggling. Times where we...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. Have you ever had a moment where you just snap—and the second it’s over, you wish you could take it all back? In this honest and personal solo episode, I’m sharing a moment from last week where I lost my cool as a wife and mom—and what God has been teaching me through it. Because the truth is, so many of us are trying to hold it all together, a...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. In this episode, I sit down with Lindsey Maestas for a conversation that feels both honest and deeply hopeful for anyone navigating the realities of marriage. Coming off our Marriage Through the Decades series, this conversation couldn’t be more timely. Lindsey brings both truth and tenderness as she shares from her own story—walking through se...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. n the final week of the Marriage Through the Decades series, Nikki sits down with Marc and Lori Maillefer, a couple who have been married for 44 years and who have played a deeply meaningful role as mentors in Nikki and Jed’s life. Their marriage has been shaped by decades of ministry, raising five children, navigating grief and hardship, and l...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. In week three of the Marriage Through the Decades series, Nikki sits down with Loren and Sue Tucker, a couple who have been married for 35 years and whose influence has stretched across generations. This conversation is especially meaningful as Loren and Sue were Nikki’s youth pastors during some of the most formative years of her life. With wa...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. In week two of the Marriage Through the Decades series, Nikki sits down with Eric and Lindsay Parks for an honest and encouraging conversation about what it looks like to protect what you’ve built in marriage and family life. Married for 23 years and raising five children, Eric and Lindsay share wisdom from a season filled with busy schedules,...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. Over the next four weeks, we’ll hear from four couples in four different decades of marriage, from 11 years all the way to 44. Each story is unique, but they share a common thread: faith, real struggles, and the grace it takes to keep choosing each other through every season. To begin the series, I’m joined by Lyndsey and Cody , who have been m...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. What if one of the greatest gifts we can give our children isn’t a perfect childhood, but a healthy marriage to grow up inside of? In this special kickoff episode, we’re introducing a four-week series called Marriage Through the Decades . This series isn’t about picture-perfect relationships or pretending anyone has it all together. It’s about...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. Some days feel like you’re barely holding the house, the calendar, and your own heart together, and you wonder if you’re failing at life. Today’s conversation will meet you right there. Nikki sits down with Deon Holman, wife, mom of three, and writer of an upcoming 30-day devotional project Messy Days, Mighty God, to talk about finding Jesus in...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. Valentine’s week often centers around flowers, feelings, and romance. But what if love is meant to be much deeper and much more daily than that? In this episode, we step back and ask a foundational question: if the greatest commandment is to love, what does that actually look like inside our homes? Not the cultural version of love built on emot...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. In this heartfelt episode, Nikki shares an honest conversation about the tension so many mothers feel but rarely name, the joy and grief that exist side by side as our children grow and begin to let go of our hands. From sending a child off to college to watching her youngest drive away for the first time, Nikki reflects on the moments that fee...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. As we wrap up our three-part series on starting the new year with clarity and purpose, this episode focuses on one essential question: How do we stay in our race when the excitement fades and the work gets hard? We explore why we often expect quick results in the beginning but underestimate what steady faithfulness can produce over time. Throug...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. In part 2 of our 3-part series on goal setting and vision, we’re talking about clarity and how clear, God-given direction can simplify your life in a way that feels like peace. When you don’t know where you’re headed, everything gets heavier: indecision, overthinking, people-pleasing, and yeses that don’t align with what truly matters. Today, I...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. As we step into a new year, many of us feel a mix of hope, pressure, exhaustion, and uncertainty. In this opening episode of Season 3, Nikki invites you to pause, reflect, and reframe what it really means to move forward. This episode kicks off a three-part series centered on running your own race, not chasing comparison, perfection, or unreali...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. If perfection keeps stealing your peace, this episode hands it back. In this season finale, we look at a year of growth in the real world — inside homes full of schedules, emotions, and people we love. We talk about the shift that’s changing everything for our families: saying less, being clear, and repairing quickly when we miss the mark. We a...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. When the calendar starts sprinting and the afternoons turn dark way too early, we get the chance to slow everything down. We can take a deep breath, look back on the year, and see it through three lenses that matter—gratitude, growth, and grace. Not to hustle harder or create picture-perfect plans, but to walk into 2026 with steadiness, a littl...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. In this podcast episode, Nikki welcomes Natalie Abbott, co-founder of Dwell Differently, a ministry dedicated to helping people memorize scripture.  Natalie discusses her life as a wife, mom of five, and author. She shares her personal journey to faith, which started with reading various religious texts, including the Bible given to her by her...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. In this engaging conversation, Nikki Smith interviews Justin Whitmel Earley, exploring the profound connection between our physical habits and spiritual lives. Justin shares his personal journey from a crisis in mental health to discovering the importance of habits in shaping our souls. They discuss the impact of technology in parenting, the si...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. Today I get to sit down with a dear friend of mine, Debbie Neal. For years, I’ve known Debbie as a woman of incredible drive and determination — a true leader, a go-getter, and someone who has inspired so many through her work and her example. But today’s conversation isn’t about her professional achievements. It’s about something far more pers...

We would love to hear from you! Text us any feedback. What happens when your “forever home” isn’t forever after all? We sit down with Lindsay Parks—wife, mom of five, creator, and co-host of Built for More—to unpack the surprising decision to sell the dream house she built in public, and the freedom that followed. This isn’t a story about loss; it’s a story about listening. Lindsay shares how a qu...