Moments Matter

You can't force your kids or your teens or even your adult children to love God, but can you teach them and train them how to do love God? Sonja and Julia talk about the practical ways Julia was trained as a child and teenager to love the Lord and to read her Bible.  We are not perfect and we don't know all the answers, but people ask how Sonja and Kevin raised girls that love the Lord a...

How do I honor my parents as an adult? I have my own life, my own family, my own opinions about what is best... and they have opinions about what is best, too!  We're all children of someone , which means that the command in Ephesians 6 is still applicable to us who are over the age of 21 (we'll just go with the age that society acknowledges you are   an adult).  We are told in the Bible...

When you have kids in the house, it's easy to get sucked into doing all the things–being a wife, mom, and the many jobs that come along with those roles–and to stop growing in Christ because you're too busy. But when this happens and we become empty nesters, we find ourselves at a loss for what our purpose truly is. We've been a mom all our lives, and now that our kids are out of th...

Friendship is hard no matter what age you are. We all want friends, and for a lot of women, it can be hard to find good, Godly friends who encourage you and lift you up. Sonja has gone through multiple "friendship breakups" and has been hurt (and has hurt others) multiple times. We talk about the fact that yes–friends hurt us and we hurt our friends. What do we do then? And what about th...

What do we do with our emotions when we take our kids to college? Do you have those feelings of letting your little child (who probably isn't little now) head off to college without you? It could be the first time or the last time, but it's still hard (Sonja knows, she's been there). We talk about how to handle the big emotions that come with this Big Moment and answer these questio...

Have you ever disobeyed the Lord's leading? Sonja has, and she talks about specific times in her life when listening to the Lord's voice meant doing the hard thing. She grapples with the idea of "partial obedience" and what that truly means... is it really a thing? Is God calling you to do something you've been pushing against or have you ignored Him before? Life only gets...

Julia dated a guy Sonja and Kevin did NOT like (actually two guys, but that's not the point). What do YOU do when your adult child is dating someone you don't like? What if they are married to someone you don't like? We're diving into some of these tough questions today. We discuss: - Julia and Sonja's experience with Julia dating someone her parents didn't like - How...

Why is it SO hard to ask for help? As women, we're told to be strong and we're told we can do it all... but can we really do it all? Why do we HAVE to do it all? Is that really biblical? Sonja teaches about what happens when you fall into "Survivor Mode," and what that looks like whether you are a head, heart, or gut person.  We talk about vulnerability, asking for help, commun...

Are strict rules really necessary for dating? What about talking to your kids about sex? What about your adult kids dating? Sonja's 3 daughters, Julia, Ashli Prieskorn, and Jenna Dalton, overtake the podcast today to spill all about what Sonja and Kevin did during their high school years all the way up until all 3 of them them got married. We get to tell some of our horror stories as well as...

It’s so hard to NOT have an opinion when you become a grandparent–and Sonja gets real honest about what a grandparent should really be focusing on (hint: and it ISN'T their own opinion). Have you ever wondered what your role is now that you’re the parent of parents? All grandparents struggle with what to say, when to say it, or if to say it at all when they disagree with their kids’ parenting...

If Sonja could go back and teach her kids these 3 lessons, she would. They would have had an easier transition from home to college and from college to marriage, and she spills her mistakes on today's episode. If you are still in the teenager stage, you may want to consider teaching these valuable lessons to your kids before they've moved out of the house! Even if they already have moved...

It’s time we change the stereotype of being “the annoying mother-in-law.” We all want to be loved by your kids' spouses and have good relationships with them, but it can get super tense when your adult children get married to someone you just don’t know that well. What can we do to relieve that tension and grow healthy relationships? We as Godly mother-in-laws need to be encouraging instead o...

“My kid wants to date. What do I do now?” The classic panic attack we probably all feel or have felt as parents.  A lot of times it happens earlier than we expect! Sonja had 3 daughters who ALL dated in high school, and she has a lot of experience… things that worked really well (and things that didn’t). Julia sprinkles her opinions in there, too. Here’s what we discuss: The 3 different kinds of d...

“ Older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children…” Titus 2:4. Should WE be mentoring in the 21st century? What is a mentor and why are we commanded to mentor others? You might be asking yourself, “Wait, I’m not old enough or good enough to be a mentor, right?” Hm… Sonja and Julia talk about 4 myths that they’ve heard other women say about why they don’t mentor o...

Resolved to divorce, both Sonja and Kevin head to a church harvest party. We left you on that heavy cliffhanger last week, and in this episode , we’ll not only be telling the rest of the story, but we’ll also be explaining what it’s like to tell your adult kids about your sinful past and how God's glory can shine through it all. We discuss:  ❤️ How Sonja and Kevin’s broken marriage healed 💔...

We have our very first guest on Moments Matter today! And who other than Kevin Wallenbeck, Sonja’s husband and Julia’s dad? Sonja has been able to tell a lot of their background from her perspective, but we thought it would be insightful to our listeners (and hopefully encouraging) to hear Kevin’s perspective, as well. So we interview him about what their early marriage really looked like. We disc...

On average, 720 people will search “recovering from emotionally immature parents” on Google monthly. What does this mean? Adult children want healthy relationships with emotionally healthy parents. It certainly made us reflect on what parents can be doing to ensure they aren’t emotionally immature! We discuss: What defines emotionally immature parents  Sonja’s story of emotional immaturity as a mo...

There’s a lot of emotions surrounding graduation. It’s an exciting time for your kid, but it’s an exhausting (and sad!) time for you. You want to be there and make everyone else happy, and all the while you're stressed and sometimes you can even be sad. There's so much going on–planning a grad party is hard work! Sonja has hosted 3 large high school grad parties and a smaller college gra...

“Mother Yourself Out of a Job” is a wonderful article written by Michele Morin. Both Sonja and Julia agree that what she has to say is valuable for empty nesters (or those nearing that season). We summarize the article, talk about what we agreed with, and we discuss some statements she made that we ultimately don’t come to the same conclusion when parenting adult kids.  Due to a difficult situatio...

Let's talk teens and technology. On this bonus episode, we're going to be talking about what Sonja did, what she wishes she had done, what she could have done better when it came to her 3 teenage daughters and their phones/laptops/tv. We talk about: - What boundaries Sonja and Kevin put in place (and what she wished she would have put in place) - Steps to protect your teen's purity...

Today we dive into how the Enneagram has personally affected both Sonja and Julia on our spiritual walks with the Lord. This tool has changed our lives and shown us sins we never realized we were struggling with. In this episode we talk about: How the Enneagram can help us become aware of the "why" behind our actions (good and bad) What sin struggles Sonja has had as an Enneagram 8 What...

What is the difference between helping your kids and enabling them? We give examples from Julia’s childhood all the way into adulthood and how Sonja and Kevin learned to bless their kids well through each stage of high school, college, and adult life.  Blessing your kids can be moments filled with joy and wonder, but how do you do bless them well in whatever stage your kids are enabling them and/o...

Sonja and Julia's relationship pretty much sucked during Julia’s engagement. Listen to part 2 of the Wedding Planning Process, where we get real honest today as we discuss how bad our relationship got for a while there. In Part 2 of the "Mom's Role in Her Child's Wedding," we talk a LOT about why it's important to know yourself and try to understand each of your adult...

There is so much STRESS involved in wedding planning, and it often revolves around relationships, finances, and… uh, well, relationships. We dive into some pretty vulnerable conversations about how Sonja handled all three of her daughters’ weddings and some practical ideas on what to do throughout the process (as the mother of the bride or groom). We cover: How Sonja and Kevin budgeted for each we...

Let’s not resign ourselves to the mindset that just because they are teenagers means they are automatically going to be awful for the next 6 years of your life. Sonja gets a little heated on today's episode as she argues that we can ENJOY the teenage years and how much your parenting matters not only in the moment, but for their future as adults! It just takes work (like all satisfying practi...