Life Builders By Julie Hamilton | Encouragement | Faith

Today is just straight preaching from me! Here are four beautiful gifts that we can find in the darkest seasons of our lives. 

Kelly King knows a thing or two about waiting well! She's been in women's ministry for decades, and that's brought her to her current position as the Women's Resource Specialist for Lifeway Christian Resources. Hear her encouragement for wading through unmet expectations, being faithful to take the next steps when the promise seems far away, how women's ministry has changed over the decades, and finally finding yourself in just the right place and the right season!  Follow Kelly's Journey on IG and Twitter at @kellydking Resources mentioned:  Open Windows devotional magazine for a more mature audience Stand Firm devotional magazine for men Journey devotional magazine for women   You Lead 1 Day Leadership Training for Women Lifeway Women's Leadership Forum Women's Leadership Forum in Irvine, Feb 20 - 21  

Dutch Bros Coffee isn't just loud music, chatty teenagers and crazy drinks.  It's a grace incubator and leadership laboratory under the care of David & Kenzie Rowe. These passionate young leaders are impacting our community and work force one cup at a time by teaching their employees how to thrive in face to face relationships, grow healthy minds and hearts, and develop into their best self. Today let's talk about maintaining vision throughout the mundane tasks, growing an env't of grace in the workplace, what they love about the public and nerd out on what leadership development books are in their own mini-library! Follow David and Kenzie's journey by stopping by the Dutch Bros stand in Napa or Sonoma! They're not really on social media :)  Resources mentioned in today's episode:  "The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom" by Don Miguel Ruiz  "Be Here Now" by Ram Dass "Entreleadership:20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom From the Trenches" by Dave Ramsey "QBQ: The Question Behind the Q

Wow wow wow. This podcast ranks high among my favorites ever.  Therapist and author Jay Stringer explores the world of unwanted sexual behavior (pornography, infidelity, and buying sex) with such grace and gentleness, showing us that these behaviors are actually invitations to finding healing and wholeness. We talk about how these unwanted behaviors are not random, they have specific root causes, about how the church and secular "treatments" haven't been effective and why, about how we don't have a "lust management" problem but a heart problem usually related to anger or power, what to do when you find out a spouse is using pornography, how we can grow up in abuse without ever being touched, and how our culture, even our language perpetuates violence against and degradation of women. This chat will enlighten, challenge, and hopefully encourage you to find the way to healing and encourage those around you to do the same! Follow Jay's journey at www.jay-stringer.com    Resources:  "Unwanted: How Sexual Brokene

How does a girl from South Carolina who doesn't like people grow up to work in the White House & Congress and then find her heart's passion serving Syrian refugees & working in the world of fashion in the Middle East? In this interview with Ally Portee we'll find out! Learn how her childhood influenced her heart for the nations and love for politics, what she treasures about the Middle East, the realities of Syrian refugee camps and how YOU can help most, what it takes to become a writer at Harper's Bazaar Arabia, why you should "let it go," and tips to navigate the twists and turns of your own path! Follow Ally's world wide journey at @allylolitaportee     

"Two key factors I saw contributed to raising daughters well. 1) If they had a safe relationship with their parents, they could get through anything and 2) If they had an ONGOING dialogue, a slow drip of truth and real relationships." Terra Mattson, a Marriage & Family Therapist, combined all her clinical knowledge, ministry knowledge, and life experience to create dialogue and support for raising AND being daughters rooted in grace! Her free curriculum has been used to create mom/daughter groups all around the world (Courageous Girls), she founded Living Wholehearted and is now expanding into a conference called InCourage 2020 where she's bringing women together to create honest and beautiful conversations and bring healing. Today we talked about sin vs. survival behaviors, her biggest awakening, raising daughters in grace, and the biggest obstacles facing women today...you'll be surprised about her insight on that one! Follow Terra's journey at www.TerraMattson.com  or on IG at @TerraMattson, @Living_Wh

"You’re not going to see what's next fully until you let go of everything else." Former "churchy girl" Marni Ausenbaugh shares vulnerably about her journey of self discovery and walking by faith through a season where nothing seems stable.  "Be authentic and live a life of purpose on purpose."   Follow Marni's journey at www.marniausenbaugh.com and her name on Youtube, IG and FB! (and look out for her new podcasting "Reformed Churchy Girl" coming soon.)  

It's a big topic from a big man with a big heart! Stan Johnson leads us on a gracious journey to explore the topic of racism in light of the Bible and what it says about how we should treat our fellow man.     

Brian Dixon has helped literally thousands of messengers & authors grow in their craft through Hopewriters and his clarity coaching. Today he joined us to share practical ways we can be cultural architects, build the life we want by focusing on the people closest to us first and also a few fantastic tips for want-to-be authors! I just ordered his brand new book "Start With Your People" today and I hope you will too! You also do not want to miss his "kitchen fail" story -- I am still laughing about it!  "What’s obvious to you is magic to other people." Follow Brian's journey on IG at @brianjdixon where he loves to answer his DM's!  Resources mentioned in today's show include:  -Order Start With Your People at www.startwithyourpeople.com to get the bonus features!  -30 second quiz for writers: hopewriters.com/quiz  "Poverty, Riches and Wealth: Moving from a Life of Lack into True Kingdom Abundance" by Kris Vallotton Kris Vallotton Podcast "Becoming a Cultural Architect"     

We're back and starting off Season 2! So happy to be back here with you again! Today's episode is just about catching up. Just little old me talking all about immense grace (and the float spa). What is grace? What does is really mean? Is it just a life preserver when we're drowning or something more? Let's chat. 

"Please know that you can trust Him to be faithful and He will bring about and accomplish all that He has promised you." In today's chat we tackle one of the biggest and most controversial issues in the church -- women in leadership-- and so much more! Dear friend & Pastor Tom Stonecipher dares to jump in to bring some biblical clarity to how and why we should support leaders & their authority regardless of their gender. He shares about Jesus's view of women, why women sometimes make better pastors, practical advice for husbands to support their wives, why timing matters and why we can trust God! The whole thing is great, but if you only have a few minutes, skip to minute 32:00 where the absolute gold unfolds! If you're a woman who feels called, but stuck, listening to this last part is an absolute MUST!! Other topics mentioned in this chat include: -What conservative religious traditions typically believe about women -The surprising division surrounding this topic -How Jesus viewed women -Why footbal

The bottom line is I almost missed my purpose because I bowed down to fear.  The enemy will thwart most of our destinies because of fear more than anything else. Global evangelist and anti human trafficking advocate Christine Caine stops by to stir our faith and share her thoughts on why we need to live an "Undaunted" life, how to find the appointment on the other side of disappointment, what our generations are in desperate need of right now, why "overnight success" takes 20 - 30 years, the state of the global church and how fear wants to derail us from our destiny and in her case, almost succeeded.  Some of other topics we touched on were:  -her favorite season of parenting -teamwork makes the dreamwork -enjoying the journey -why she updated & rewrote the book "Undaunted" -daring to do what God calls you to do -what she's had to overcome -keys to entering your God given destiny -how God's work on the inside of us correlates to our outside work -what happens when we don't quit -Bible heroes and instagram

“When we aim at the target of performance, maturity always suffers. But when we aim at the target of maturity, the performance goes off the charts.” This is one of the best parenting episodes we've ever had! Janet Newberry shows us how growing up in a performance based culture & education system harms our children, ourselves and our relationships. Thankfully, we have a choice to live free by design and not stay stuck in the default.  In this episode, we chat about the differences between design vs default, how to know whether we're performing for others or being our true selves, and why parenting should not be transactional (striving to earn our next privilege), but transformational (built on a trust relationship & help) and so much more!! Janet is the host of the Brave Love Podcast, one of my go-to podcasts that is making me a much more effective parent and I count it as a privilege to have her on the show! In this chat, we also talked about:  -Their grand adventure- traveling the US and living in an

Out of all the episodes I've recorded, Misty Phillip's story is one that I've probably reflected on about most since recording it.  Misty has faced her share of life challenges; losing a child to Trisomy 18, a broken childhood, caring for a special needs child, and one of her most formidable foes, breaking both arms at the same time and spending a year in recovery. In spite of all of this, her life's message is about overcoming! She shares tips for those of us who feel stuck, what matters most in overcoming, explains how her creative mastermind went from 2 people to 70 and lets us in on the secrets of successful creatives. Find out what "crack time" is and why collaborating with creatives who are in different fields than you matters.    In this episode, we also chat about:  - transitioning from learner to teacher - adult children  -why God's timing matters -why she wrote "The Struggle is Real, But So Is God" -living a defeated Christian life -the hardest thing to overcome in her life -what she learned when sh

More than ever, women feel alone and are longing for deep and supportive friendships. But how do we get there? How do we find that "girl gang" to cheer us on in life? Caitlin Zick, co-director of Moral Revolution, stops by today to chat about the "honesty room", all access pass and how we can be intentional about building the communities that we desperately need.  We'll talk about her new book "Look at You, Girl", the vocabulary we need to have in-depth conversations, the cost of the "busy" badge, tips to go from strangers to sisters and why owning your story matters.  Some of the other topics we chatted about include:  -What is Moral Revolution?  -Why they are labeled as "the sex pastors" -The dream in teenager Caitlin's heart -Why "Look at you, Girl" was written -Why are the eyes closed on the front cover if we're supposed to be looking? -Friendships that push you out of the boat -How do we begin transforming inside instead of outside? -Identifying labels and lies you've lived under -Sourcing the lies -Bein

Hitler's invention, flouride, is "more toxic than lead but slightly less toxic than arsenic."  On today's podcast, we explore this and other subtle forces affecting our health daily, even if we're not aware of them.  In this totally off-the-cuff chat, we talked about EMF's (electromagnetic fields), causes of the current fertility crisis, water, quantum physics, the power of thoughts and words and why wellness is a 4 dimensional process. Strap on your seatbelt, because you're about to go for a ride that's going to challenge and maybe even change you! For more info on pursuing healthy living, check out Chrissy's new book "Healing Through Wisdom."  Some other topics we discussed were:  -The event that caused Chrissy to pursue health and wellness not just for herself, but for others -What she went through that she never wants anyone else to do -How long it actually takes to detox from gluten, grain, and sugar -The scary reason you should care about your liver -Being intentional about sharing wellness without deme

At the age of 9, little Anna Lebaron had 49 siblings. But even after growing up in a violent polygamist cult constantly on the run from the law, her life today is a true testament to the possibility of finding hope, healing and true identity after childhood trauma and neglect. In today's podcast (and her book "The Polygamist's Daughter"), Anna holds out hope for every person who feels too broken to ever be whole again. Some of the topics we touched on were:  -Life in a polygamist cult -How poverty and polygamy affected her walk with God -Effect of fatherlessness -Pursuing healing and freedom -Finding true comfort  -Turning to food for comfort/losing weight -Self care to combat PTSD -Why this memoir matters -Every person's potential for healing -The length of the healing process -What does freedom actually mean?  -Being who we are destined to become -When God's spirit is near -"You're right here." -Experiencing the fathering heart after fatherlessness  -How to hear God speak -Message on Anna's heart -You can h

The only constant in life is change. But why is it so hard? I am honored to have CSULA professor & social innovation expert, Dr. Marla Parker, here to show us how to navigate challenging shifts well and why it's necessary to respond to God's call for change in our lives. Dr. Parker shares some excellent examples of responses to change, healthy steps to navigate the disequilibrium we feel, why we MUST have a new view of ourselves to step into the next level of our life and what concerns and encourages her most about millennials!  Other topics we touched on were:  -Can introverts be leaders? -One teacher's impact -Why is it important to respond to calls for change? -An elegant, biblical model for response to change -Navigating disequilibrium -Why change requires rest -Embracing a new view of ourselves -The fears she's had to shed to grow -What concerns her most about what she's seeing in college age students today.  -The most encouraging characteristic of the upcoming generation -Message on her heart/call o

"Growing up in 80’s in Germany, all my dolls except for one were white by default. Even the image of what was "beautiful," if you looked at Disney movies back then, the princesses were all blonde and blue eyed. So that was what we were striving for as a young girl." "What our kids read, what they are becoming, believing, and seeing is what our world is going to become one day. Spread a feast in from of them, not just potatoes or plantains." As a homeschool mom and a lover of literature (and people), I am so proud of this chat with Nancy Hartman. She is an incredible woman, half German-half Ghanian, and a homeschooling mom with a heart to highlight the beauty of diversity in Children's Literature.  Listen in on this very honest chat about living your own truth, seeing beauty in differences, why it's important that children see characters in books that look like themselves, being intentional about selecting books written by people of color that tell an authentic story, and how we can be specific about seeking d

"The doctors came in and said “He’s sicker today than he was yesterday. At some point today we need to turn off life support."  I needed to call my friends and family and let them know that this was the last day he would live." Throughout 394 days of hospitalization, fighting impossible odds and spending many days at death's door, Beth Armstrong tells the story of how her faith and trust in God grew through the storm of her husband's health tragedy turned testimony. In today's chat, we talk about Beth's journey, trusting God through the unknown, the little things, what to do if you need a miracle and not just walking through a storm but bearing fruit from it.   "God can use all of it, whether it’s a small inconvenience or a huge hurricane sized storm that you didn’t see coming. He can use it, even though it doesn’t feel good, for your good." Some other topics we touched on were:  -total surrender leads to transformation -perspective shifts -Chris on life support -facing 90% odds of mortality -peace beyond und