No More Perfect Podcast with Jill Savage

Welcome to another bonus episode of the No More Perfect Podcast! I tend to put these bonus episodes out there once every other month and their purpose is to give you some quick encouragement and wisdom for your life.  Thank you for being here! Usually, when I do a bonus episode I do it on my own or with my husband, but today I’m joined by my friend, Keli Reese! Keli is a married mom of five and th...

Waiting is a natural part of the human experience. Each and every one of us will experience waiting numerous times throughout our lifetimes. It may be waiting for physical healing, waiting for the prodigal to return home, waiting for relationships to mend or to heal, waiting to trust to be rebuilt, waiting for careers to take off, or waiting for our spouse to engage in the marriage. Unfortunately,...

Every one of us experiences setbacks and disappointments in life, but some of those are harder to come back from than others. Whether that be a season of illness, hardships from life circumstances, or perhaps you are going through issues with your relationship or marriage. My guest understands this as he faced a life-changing challenge at just six years of age when a severe childhood illness left...

In this episode, Mark and I are tackling a unique topic that we’ve never really covered before! It’s the topic of alcohol and specifically how it can affect our lives and our relationships if we aren’t careful. If you grew up in a conservative Christian household, you may not have had any exposure to alcohol growing up and that may leave you wondering if it has a place in your life at all as an ad...

Since our marriage crisis 11 years ago, Mark and I refer to ourselves as “Mark & Jill 2.0” and that’s because we are very different people than we were in our 1.0 status. So what was that journey from 1.0 to 2.0 like? Well, we dug in, we found our hidden heart issues, and we realized how much they were sabotaging our lives and relationship. Then, we did the work to heal those issues. This jour...

External success does not mean there are no internal struggles. And yet, we often idolize celebrities and follow people on social media that look like they “have it all together.” If you have ever heard me speak or read any of my books, you’ve probably heard me say that we need to stop comparing our insides to other people’s outsides. Well, today’s conversation is going to illustrate why. My guest...

I have my husband with me today because we are celebrating 40 years of marriage this week! Can you believe it? We were 19 and 23 years old when we got married. As we were talking about the last 40 years of life spent together, processing, and remembering both the good and the not-so-good times, we realized that there were a few pieces of advice we would give to our younger selves. As we take a loo...

Welcome to another bonus episode of the No More Perfect Podcast! We like to surprise you every once in a while with some quick and helpful podcast goodness, just for you. Thank you for being here! In this episode, Mark and I discuss the powerful principle of “Pray, Don’t Say.” This phrase helps us slow down our reactions, be thoughtful about our responses, and seek God’s leadership in our relation...

When a little one enters the world, there is a balance that needs to be struck between taking care of baby and taking care of mom. I know each time we added a new little one to our family, I had to figure out that balance all over again. Whether you are a new mom or a soon-to-be grandma, this episode’s conversation will address all things moms, babies, and how to take care of both. Helping me dive...

Would you like to know a little-known fact? Well, one of the most accessed blog posts on my website is a post titled When a Woman is Addicted to Pornography . It was first published in 2017 and it is still one of the most popular posts. Our world primarily talks about lust and pornography as a “man’s problem” but a 2016 Barna study actually found that 20% of Christian women use porn on a regular b...

Many years ago when I was a young mom, I read two books that I had actually just picked off the shelf at a Christian bookstore. Those two books absolutely changed my life and my mothering— A Mother’s Touch and A Mother’s Time— and the author was Elise Arndt. To say that this lady has been an influence in my life would be a huge understatement. Elise has now entered the 80th year of her life, but s...

We live in an age of an endless and overwhelming amount of information. Whether or not we realize it, it can start to take a toll on us. It can begin to affect our personal well-being and create depletion, exhaustion, impatience, and it can bring out versions of ourselves that we are not very proud of. When this happens, it means that our heart needs a reset. But how do we find the reset button? M...

As I talk to women in the second half of their lives, I often run into the belief that the most meaningful moments of life are behind them. But what if the most meaningful moments of life are really yet to come? I talk about this in my Empty Nest, Full Life book. This midlife or second half of life is actually where we get to enjoy what I refer to as our “encore season of life.” We have so much to...

If there is one principle I have learned in nearly 40 years of marriage, it’s the principle that love is a choice. It’s a decision. It is not a feeling. Dr. Gary Chapman believes that as well because “choice” is in the name of his newest book. Dr. Gary Chapman is an author, speaker, and counselor who has a passion for helping people form lasting relationships. You may recognize his name from his b...

When Mark and I went through the dark season in our marriage, it’s no surprise that we sought out counseling. However, what most people find surprising is that our counselor focused more on untangling our childhoods than our skills as a couple. That was exactly what we needed in order to restore our marriage and move forward! We all have a past, but what we don’t often realize is how much what hap...

Our marriage when off the tracks in 2011, when Mark was in a full-on midlife crisis, affair included. It would take us two years to move from being on the verge of divorce to a healed and improved Mark & Jill 2.0. I wouldn’t wish anyone to go through infidelity, however, it can be a wake-up call that reveals the places of hurt, pain, and dysfunction that should have been addressed a long time...

Welcome to another bonus episode of the No More Perfect Podcast! We love surprising you with extra podcast content that's super practical and beneficial for your life – it's our way of saying thank you! Mark is joining me as we dive into the often challenging world of communication within a marriage, as a result of our Love Styles. Many people experience anxiety or avoidance when it come...

Are you an innie or an outie? We’re not talking bellybuttons here; we are talking about how you deal with clutter. Innies tend to "file," while outies tend to "pile." I am naturally an outie, so I tend to pile, and that led to some disorganization challenges that took me quite a bit of time to finally overcome. After 30 years in women’s ministry, I know that home organization i...

For those of us who are married, we would testify that there are times when marriage is hard. There are ups and downs and challenges that we face while learning how to blend two lives into one. You may often hear Mark and I talk about that in this space. Relationships can often hit bumps in the road. This is true of marriages, family relationships, or close friendships. But sometimes those relatio...

I’ve got a question for you: What happens when life hits you hard? Do you crawl inside yourself and hide? Do you throw your hands up and give up? Or do you wipe yourself off and get back up again? In this episode, I am talking about resilience, and to help me do that is my friend, Kelley Tyan. Kelley is a wife, mother of two, as well as the author of the book and host of the podcast, Addicted to t...

Life transitions can be tricky. There are hard changes that we don’t see coming and then there are welcome changes that we also have to navigate. Change in general can bring a flood of conflicting feelings from joy and delight to vulnerability, fear, and anxiety. As one season closes and another begins, we often find ourselves asking: What on earth am I supposed to do now? That’s what we are going...

Boy, do we have a story for you! It’s a story of how God connects the dots and meets needs even when we can’t see how circumstances could ever connect in that way. This summer, Mark and I are going to minister to marriages in Uganda but to tell you how we end up preparing to minister to hundreds of pastors and their wives, we have to tell you about a road trip to Florida. This episode will look a...

In today’s gotta-have-it-all culture, exhaustion and hurry seem to be a badge of honor. We hustle hard, strive even more every day, and believe our “superhuman” tendencies are amazing! But the truth is they are alarming! So what does it take to rock the boat enough to wake up our soul and address this? My guest today, Christy Boulware, has asked that question of herself. A severe panic and anxiety...

How do you find peace when you are not in a very peaceful state of mind? And where do you find the words to talk to God about peace when it feels like your whole life is spinning out of control? In a world that is filled with stress and anxiety, it can seem that peace is difficult to find. We often turn to prayer too late and then wonder why it didn’t work. Helping me dig into this topic is Brooke...

Today, Mark is joining me to talk about the subject of personal growth. It’s no secret that we did a lot of work on our marriage that we now affectionately refer to as “Mark & Jill 2.0”. But what you might not hear us talk about specifically as much is how much growing we had to do on our own before our marriage could take on new life. Whether you're feeling like you're stuck in surv...