MESSmerized - Funny and faith based encouragement in marriage , family , Christian parenting , and finding purpose

It’s December and the time of year when we start receiving the perfect Christmas cards in the mail at the exact time as our “friends” start posting their perfectly wrapped presents underneath their fabulously decorated Christmas trees. Sickening, am I right? Ha. 🎄📷🤢   I’m fighting my own battle against the urge to make everything look perfect by sending out quite possibly the worst Christmas ca...

  It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And busiest . . .    There’s truly nothing like Christmas and the anticipation of fun activities, family gatherings, and celebrating the birth of our Savior. But there’s also the practicalities of shopping, cleaning, hosting, and wrapping that bring chaos to our lives if we aren’t super intentional. (Not to mention that JB is already burning up the speak...

Happy Thanksgiving week!   Are you putting up your tree this week and getting a jump on Christmas decorations?    Or are you a Thanksgiving loyalist who refuses to address the Christmas chaos until after the bird is consumed? I’m a little bit of both if I’m honest. I’m dead-set on fully embracing Thanksgiving, while also wanting to soak in every single second of Christmas by kicking-off the festiv...

It’s National Adoption Month, and I would be remiss if I didn’t talk at least a little bit about adoption—since it has changed our lives in all of the best ways!  But today we’re also talking more generally about the God-sized callings that are placed on our lives. It’s those things that God asks us to do as a step of faith and a call to obedience. For some of us it’s adoption, but for others it’s...

Can you believe it’s the week before Thanksgiving? 🦃🍁   Here’s a little Thanksgiving tale that my family loves to bring up this time of year.    A few years ago I got unreasonably ambitious and made the Pioneer Woman’s pumpkin chocolate pie recipe. Now listen, no shade on Ree as I’m sure her pie is fantastic (done correctly). But somehow I missed a step . . .  and showed up to Thanksgiving with...

The day has finally come where I get to share something unbelievably exciting that’s going on in my life. And true to form, I come to you somewhere between wildly excited to share the news while also completely nerved-out because it’s vulnerable and so deeply special to me. But here we go!    Drum roll please . . . . You guys, I wrote a book!    It’s called Life is Messy, God is Good and it’s the...

  Yep, it's November and we are turning our focus to worship.   If you’re anything like me, you probably think of worship as that 20 minute span of music on Sundays before the sermon. And that is part of the story for sure, but definitely not the whole story.     Louie Giglio defines worship this way: It’s our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who He is and what He’s done—expre...

In today’s show we’re talking about the three fundamental questions our kids are asking:  Who am I? Where do I fit? What difference can I make?  It doesn’t take long to realize these aren’t just questions for kids, but questions we all deal with at different points in life. Knowing this, It’s critically important we wrestle well with these core concepts of identity, belonging, and purpose—and Brad...

"I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers to God make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and the consequences of those effects down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get off our knees for the rest of our lives. Peter Kreeft." - Peter Kreeft Thi...

Guys . . . we have Lee Strobel on MESSmerized today!    Lee Strobel is a former atheist turned Christian apologist who tackles the most common questions and objections people struggle with when it comes to faith. Spoiler alert, these obstacles involve the theology around earthly suffering as well as feeling as if God is silent.    Lee references statistics indicating that belief in God is now down...

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you’ve had a fun and relaxing weekend.    Let’s kick-off this week with a keeping it real moment in our house right now (that’s also making me a wee bit crazy). JB, our 6-year-old, has suddenly decided his wake up time is somewhere around 5:45 a.m. That’s a real bad deal in and of itself; however, it’s exacerbated by the fact our teenage son gets his second wind aroun...

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking “ain’t nobody got time to worry about my own well-being.” After all, we’re trying to keep everyone else above water on any given day, right? But that mindset is exactly what gets us into trouble and is something I’m super excited for us to dive into today.    Mia Mbrow is an LPC as well as my dear friend. She’s joining us today to talk about thi...

Prayer should be the most important conversation you have everyday. —TobyMac    Can we be honest? It’s not often that we think of prayer as the most essential or important conversation we will have in a given day. It’s also not often that I kick-off a Monday morning quoting TobyMac, but he does make a great point. 😂    We started last week covering some of the obstacles we face in praying. Things...

IT'S FINALLY FALL!    The air is crisp (at least for Dallas), the pumpkin lattes are flowing, and the mums are blooming.    In honor of the change in seasons, this week we’re taking a quick break from our “Trusting God” series to have a few laughs with my dear friend, Heather MacFadyen from Don’t Mom Alone.    We’re laughing/lamenting about everything from Homecoming Mums, teen language we don...

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” - Martin Luther    I’ve spent most of my life agreeing philosophically with the words above; but I’ve also spent much of my life very practically wondering how to pray correctly. Or most effectively. Or the way that everyone else does so that God will really hear me.    Can you relate?    The next few weeks,...

Remember the time I read a book that rocked my world (in a good way), and I randomly emailed the author to come on the podcast and then cried when I finally met him? Me neither.    But if that were to happen (which it totally did), the author would be Wade Joye, the book would be This Dream is Not for You , and today’s show is the conversation you must hear.      We all have dreams, and oftentimes...

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed a few weeks of episodes where we’ve dug deep into reading our Bible. I think the takeaways are many, but mostly the key is the intentionality in doing it each day by having a time, place, and plan for reading.    This week we are talking about different tools that can help us study our Bible. By no means are these a must-have, but the resources available can be helpful in...

I couldn't be more hyped-up for you to hear our guests today as a part of the “trusting God” series. We have Cary and Cara Pierce joining us, and I’ve been hoping to make this happen for a LONG time. Not only are they dear friends, but they are hilarious and “real” people who know a thing or two about trusting God when your dreams change.  Cary is a part of the band Jackopierce , traveling acr...

In the last few weeks, many of you have shared how much you loved praying for our kids together the last few years. I have loved that too, and I’m so happy my friend Courtney DeFeo is continuing that legacy on Pardon the Mess . Be sure to check it out!   But I feel strongly that my calling this year is to help us very intentionally consider our spiritual rhythms. Why? Because our culture desperate...

I hope you’re enjoying our “Trusting God” series as much as I am. So far we’ve talked about trusting God with our failures and our future self, and this week we’re talking about trusting God with our resources. Don’t worry, this isn’t a discussion of giving away all your money. (Although we definitely are called to live generously with all aspects of our lives, including our finances.)    Pastor L...

Welcome to week 2 of our Monday podcasts!  Each week we will consider ways to incorporate small daily changes to our spiritual rhythms in hopes of experiencing big faith gains in our lives.    This week we have Libin Abraham joining us, my Pastor here in Dallas. Pastor Libin has an amazing reminder of the “why-to” behind reading our Bibles. It’s a critical precursor to the “how-to”” of reading God...

I got a text from a friend this morning asking if I was attending a  “senior lunch.” I don’t have a senior in high school right now, so the first thing that entered my mind was a luncheon for senior citizens. Life is cruel when one day you’re buying tickets to Bruno Mars in Vegas, and the next day you’re contemplating a perceived invitation to an AARP luncheon.    Turns out it was in fact a lunch...

Before school a few days ago, I overheard my first-grader arguing with his 16-year-old brother, Brett. It was obvious my little one was getting more and more annoyed at the antics of his older brother and was about to lose it. Finally, in a moment of utter fury, my little one said to Brett in his most indignant voice, “you’re not one of father Abraham’s many sons.”  It took all I had not to burst...

JB, my youngest son, fell over a Lysol can in the living room and is currently on crutches. I promise I didn’t make this up. More details are coming on today’s show, but If you’re not following me on social media you need to do so for no other reason than to see the cuteness of him navigating crutches (unsuccessfully).    Today we’re kicking off a series on trusting God and letting go of our metap...

I think we can all agree that God writes the very best stories for our lives.    I think we can also agree that sometimes those stories are incredibly difficult roads that we’d rather not walk if we’re honest.    Today on MESSmerized we have my friend Jonathan Pitts joining us to talk about life, loss, and his decision to be “defiantly joyful” no matter the situation. Besides being an incredible h...