Episode 119: Melanie Dale

in

Today, my fun friend, Melanie Dale, joins me around the table for another Crossover Episode. Each month we pick a topic and have a conversation about it. Then, you get to listen to one part here on Surviving Sarah and another part over on Melanie’s podcast called Lighten Up with Melanie Dale.

We decided to have a little chat about marriage. We talk about how we met our husbands (spoiler alert: Melanie’s story is vaguely similar to Ross and Rachel); we talk about what we wish we had known about marriage, what to do when you don’t agree on something and what we are currently learning about marriage.

Simplicity speaks volumes.-5.png

Links:

Sponsors:

  • FASTer Way to Fat Loss - If you are looking for a great way to change the way you treat health then follow this link. I first did the this program back at the beginning of February and saw amazing results! Weight loss, inches lost, better sleep, more energy. 

(Amazon affiliate links used when possible--purchasing through these links is an easy way to support the show. Or shop using www.SurvivingSarah.com/amazon and a portion of the what you buy will go back to the show.)

Connect with Melanie:  Website // Instagram // Facebook // twitter // Podcast

Takeaways From Our Conversation:

  • @@Expect the best rather than assume the worst.@@

  • When you don't agree with them, work on mutual submission. Mutual submission comes out of respect, honor and love.

  • It's okay if marriage is hard. It's not all fun and games. It's okay if it takes work. But do the work. It's worth the work. Work on developing a healthy partnership.

  • Commit to spending time together. What could that look like for you?

  • Ask each other two questions: How have you felt loved by this week? and How can I love you better?

What did you enjoy about this episode? What was your takeaway. Let's continue the conversation  on Instagram or Twitter or you can send me an email here. 

Thank you for following along life with me. I love being apart of your day. And as always, I hope this show helps you survive a little easier.

A new episode every Tuesday... just subscribe.

Subscribe for free on iTunes or Stitcher or your favorite podcast app so that you don't miss out on great conversations with women just like you. Women who are surviving and thriving. You don't have to do life alone. Be inspired, encouraged and entertained by women like Sandra Stanley, Shannan Martin, Jamie B. Golden, Mo Isom, Annie F. Downs, Joni Lay from Lay Baby Lay, Christy Nockels, Kay Warren, Suzanne Stabile and many more.

Did you enjoy today's conversation? Rate the podcast.

My goal each week is to encourage you to survive in this very thing called life. If you were encouraged or inspired or entertained, head over to iTunes and leave a brief review with a 5 star rating.

Here is a recent one from "Je$B071980". She said, “I love the topics and guests Sarah chooses - it seems like she reads my mind because I can relate to practically every episode! She has a great conversational tone to her podcasts and is so authentic. I've been so encouraged and have learned so much from this show.”

Your review will help get the podcast in front of new listeners who are just like you looking to know that they aren't alone in life. Thank you for being awesome!

Episode 118: Kathleen McCarthy Goff Weber

in

Kathleen McCarthy Goff Weber joins me around the kitchen table where we get to talk about fashion. You guys know that I love fashion—I love getting dressed. Its like a creative outlet for me. Kathleen owns a boutique in Nashville called K. McCarthy. She has an background of both fashion and counseling. You don’t meet many people with those twos boxes checked on their resume. Listening to her, you’ll see how uniquely wired she is to combine those two passions—fashion and helping people. We talk about what that looks like for her, how she came to own a boutique store, advice on how to love the you that you are, spring trends and trends that are dying. 

Kathleen Weber image.png

Links:

Sponsors:

  • Song Finch - use the promo code SURVIVE for 10% off your personalized song from scratch. To listen to the song I created for my mom, click here.

Kathleen's Survival Kit:

  • Queso
  • Lemon Drop Martini
  • Her dog
  • Something to look forward to
  • Her quiet time with coffee

(Amazon affiliate links used when possible--purchasing through these links is an easy way to support the show. Or shop using www.SurvivingSarah.com/amazon and a portion of the what you buy will go back to the show.)

Connect with Kathleen:  Instagram // twitter  // Facebook // Website

Takeaways From Our Conversation:

  • I always enjoy hearing about how someone loved something as a child and then they see how it plays out in their adult life. God is writing a story not only on your life but also your child's life. Looking back, what story has God been writing on your life?
  • When I’m in the middle of an unknown season, I think her advice is so true. We need to look back and remember. When we do that, we can see how God has been working all along. That’s my challenge for us today. Write down moments along your own timeline that seemed like pivotal moments or unknown moments, but note how God showed up. Note how He directed you. Note how He came through. Then, keep that close by. Because even if you aren’t going through an unknown, dark season in the moment, one will come. They often blow through much like the weather. Writing this kind of stuff down helps me to remember and trust God even when my feelings or my circumstances don’t feel like it.
  • Love the you that you are. Figure out your best assets and work with them. Highlight those and then forget about the rest. Don't get tripped up by it. Get to a point where you feel confident and then move on. Don't let comparison steal your joy.
  • Spring Trends: stars; bigger leg jeans with frayed edges/diagonal hem
  • Dying Trends: cold shoulders (all the people praised the Lord)

What did you enjoy about this episode? What was your takeaway. Let's continue the conversation  on Instagram or Twitter or you can send me an email here. 

Thank you for following along life with me. I love being apart of your day. And as always, I hope this show helps you survive a little easier.

A new episode every Tuesday... just subscribe.

Subscribe for free on iTunes or Stitcher or your favorite podcast app so that you don't miss out on great conversations with women just like you. Women who are surviving and thriving. You don't have to do life alone. Be inspired, encouraged and entertained by women like Sandra Stanley, Shannan Martin, Jamie B. Golden, Mo Isom, Annie F. Downs, Joni Lay from Lay Baby Lay, Christy Nockels, Kay Warren, Suzanne Stabile and many more.

Did you enjoy today's conversation? Rate the podcast.

My goal each week is to encourage you to survive in this very thing called life. If you were encouraged or inspired or entertained, head over to iTunes and leave a brief review with a 5 star rating.

Here is a recent one from "Je$B071980". She said, “I love the topics and guests Sarah chooses - it seems like she reads my mind because I can relate to practically every episode! She has a great conversational tone to her podcasts and is so authentic. I've been so encouraged and have learned so much from this show.”

Your review will help get the podcast in front of new listeners who are just like you looking to know that they aren't alone in life. Thank you for being awesome!

Episode 117: Mo Isom

in

My friend, Mo Isom, joins me again around my kitchen table. She sat around my table over a year ago where we talked about her story and book, Wreck My Life. You can listen to that on Episode 34. Mo is a married to Jeremiah and they now have 2 little girls. She is a New York Times bestselling author and communicator. There is something about Mo that is contagious—and I’m not talking about germs here. Her energy, excitement and passion for Jesus, life and others is truly contagious. 

Copy of Copy of Simplicity speaks volumes..png

Her latest book, Sex, Jesus and the Conversations the Church Forget, was released last week. We had a candid conversation about it. We talk about why she felt called to be the voice to speak about sex and Jesus, how sexual sin speaks to our identity, why we struggle to know how to talk about sex, why the “how far is too far” question is the wrong question, false sex-pectations and what true love really is. There is a lot of great truth packed into this conversation. And side note, if you have a teenager this would be a great episode for them to listen to.

Links:

Sponsors:

  • Canvas People - Get your own 11x14 Canvas People print, for FREE! Just visit Canvas People.com, upload your photo, and enter this special code: SURVIVE

Mo's Survival Kit:

(Amazon affiliate links used when possible--purchasing through these links is an easy way to support the show. Or shop using www.SurvivingSarah.com/amazon and a portion of the what you buy will go back to the show.)

Connect with Mo:  Website // Instagram // twitter  // Facebook 

Takeaways From Our Conversation:

  • "The heart behind the book is that we would recognize the truth of what sex is and what it was intended for and strip away the taboo feeling that we have around it and rise up as a church and reclaim sex for the glory of God."

  • People relate to our imperfection more than our perfection.

  • We struggle to talk about it because we don’t know where to start. Hoping it won’t happen and ignoring it isn’t the way to handle it. We can’t raise up a generation of kingdom culture changers if we don’t find healing first.

  • The first conversation God has with man, involves sex. God is knitting together man’s inherent worth as an image bearing creation of God with his God guided instruction when it comes to sexuality. Those two things are woven together.

  • We use sex to find worth, to leverage affirmation—things that God has already spoken over us in the beginning.

  • Approach relationships with: What does love require? What true love really is. Love is action. Jesus taking up a cross dying on our behalf. That is love. True love is leading another to the love that transforms everything.

What did you enjoy about this episode? What was your takeaway. Let's continue the conversation  on Instagram or Twitter or you can send me an email here. 

Thank you for following along life with me. I love being apart of your day. And as always, I hope this show helps you survive a little easier.

A new episode every Tuesday... just subscribe.

Subscribe for free on iTunes or Stitcher or your favorite podcast app so that you don't miss out on great conversations with women just like you. Women who are surviving and thriving. You don't have to do life alone. Be inspired, encouraged and entertained by women like Sandra Stanley, Shannan Martin, Jamie B. Golden, Mo Isom, Annie F. Downs, Joni Lay from Lay Baby Lay, Christy Nockels, Kay Warren, Suzanne Stabile and many more.

Did you enjoy today's conversation? Rate the podcast.

My goal each week is to encourage you to survive in this very thing called life. If you were encouraged or inspired or entertained, head over to iTunes and leave a brief review with a 5 star rating.

Here is a recent one from "Je$B071980". She said, “I love the topics and guests Sarah chooses - it seems like she reads my mind because I can relate to practically every episode! She has a great conversational tone to her podcasts and is so authentic. I've been so encouraged and have learned so much from this show.”

Your review will help get the podcast in front of new listeners who are just like you looking to know that they aren't alone in life. Thank you for being awesome!

Episode 116: Sandra Stanley

in

Sandra Stanley joins me again around my kitchen table. She was on the show awhile back—Episode 23—and it has since been one of my most popular conversations with listeners. Sandra is a mother to grown kids, wife to megachurch pastor, Andy Stanley, author, communicator and a woman who is passionate about foster care and coming alongside young mothers.

Copy of Simplicity speaks volumes..png

Sandra recently released a devotional called Breathing Room. Do you ever feel like you can’t enjoy anything because you are doing everything? Do you sometimes feel like your pace in life is causing exhaustion? Well, you aren’t alone. In this episode, we talk about what steals our breathing room, how we trade our peace for progress and what role fear plays in it all along with some practical ways to create breathing room in your life today.

Links:

Sponsors:

  • Hello Fresh - For $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, visit hellofresh.com and enter SURVIVING30

Sandra's Survival Kit:

(Amazon affiliate links used when possible--purchasing through these links is an easy way to support the show. Or shop using www.SurvivingSarah.com/amazon and a portion of the what you buy will go back to the show.)

Connect with Sandra:  Website // Instagram // twitter  // Facebook // Breathing Room Website

Takeaways From Our Conversation:

  • Have you traded your peace for progress? I know that I am completely guilty of that in different seasons of life. And I feel like I’m in a season right now where I choose progress often over peace. I look at my schedule at the end of the week and wonder where the time went. I wonder why I’m so tired or feel like the most important things didn’t happen. Determining breathing room happens by asking who are the people and the activities that are the most important and are those the things and people that are actually on my calendar. That’s a good task for each of this us—to sit down, look at the calendar and see what its filled with. 

  • No for now is not a no for always. We often don’t know why God says no, but in hindsight we can see why that no made sense. How often do we act like our children when God says no or not now? We don’t let God finish the sentence.

  • Are the people who mean the most to you getting your leftovers?

  • In families, there are certain things that come up that there are problems to solve and you come up with a solution. But there are also things that come up that are tensions to manage. 

  • God didn’t create us to operate at 100% all the time. We can undermine our ability to be effective.

  • The Sabbath was created so that you will be refreshed. We need to have some space so that we can find refreshment. God doesn’t have rules for the sake of having rules. God has rules because it serves us well.

  • The way we define breathing room is that it is the space between our current pace and our limits.

  • The things that I fear reveals a connection to my lack of breathing room. What is the core of why you say yes to everything?

  • 4 fears that affect our breathing room:

    • fear of missing out

    • fear of falling behind

    • fear of not mattering

    • fear of disappointing other people 

  • The larger question in this is: Do I trust God? Do I trust God that I matter? That I'm not falling behind or missing out? Do I trust God if people are disappointed?

  • Where do we start in creating breathing room? Have a conversation with your spouse and maybe with your kids. Maybe there’s a whole category of things to pull back from. Scale down or cut back. Evaluate your calendar and how you are spending your time. 

What did you enjoy about this episode? What was your takeaway. Let's continue the conversation  on Instagram or Twitter or you can send me an email here. 

Thank you for following along life with me. I love being apart of your day. And as always, I hope this show helps you survive a little easier.

A new episode every Tuesday... just subscribe.

Subscribe for free on iTunes or Stitcher or your favorite podcast app so that you don't miss out on great conversations with women just like you. Women who are surviving and thriving. You don't have to do life alone. Be inspired, encouraged and entertained by women like Sandra Stanley, Shannan Martin, Jamie B. Golden, Mo Isom, Annie F. Downs, Joni Lay from Lay Baby Lay, Christy Nockels, Kay Warren, Suzanne Stabile and many more.

Did you enjoy today's conversation? Rate the podcast.

My goal each week is to encourage you to survive in this very thing called life. If you were encouraged or inspired or entertained, head over to iTunes and leave a brief review with a 5 star rating.

Here is a recent one from "Je$B071980". She said, “I love the topics and guests Sarah chooses - it seems like she reads my mind because I can relate to practically every episode! She has a great conversational tone to her podcasts and is so authentic. I've been so encouraged and have learned so much from this show.”

Your review will help get the podcast in front of new listeners who are just like you looking to know that they aren't alone in life. Thank you for being awesome!

Episode 115: Melanie Dale

in

It’s time again for our special crossover episode with Melanie Dale and her show, Lighten Up with Melanie Dale. And today, we tackle the topic of body image—because that isn’t relatable to anyone. When I was in my early twenties, I truly thought that women in their 40’s didn’t deal with this struggle. That is was just a adolescence or twenty-something problem. But news flash, I still want to be attractive. I still struggle to base my worth on something that changes. And that’s why we felt like it was a topic worth talking about. We talk about what shaped our view of bodies in elementary school, triggers for the struggle, what helps us to maintain a healthy view of ourselves, how we feel about our bodies at 40 and how our past affects how we raise our daughters.

body image.png

Links:

Sponsors:

  • Canvas People - Get your own 11x14 Canvas People print, for FREE! Just visit Canvas People.com, upload your photo, and enter this special code: SURVIVE
  • Casper - Get $50 toward SELECT MATTRESSES by visiting Casper.com/SURVIVE and using the promo code SURVIVE at checkout. TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY.

(Amazon affiliate links used when possible--purchasing through these links is an easy way to support the show. Or shop using www.SurvivingSarah.com/amazon and a portion of the what you buy will go back to the show.)

Connect with Melanie:  Website // Instagram // Facebook // twitter // Podcast

Takeaways From Our Conversation:

  • We are so hard on ourselves. We often say things to ourselves that we would never say to a friend. We need to take a kinder approach to ourselves. When you look in the mirror, say out loud: Be kind to yourself. Practice gratitude.

  • Tell your story to trusted people. Ask someone to hold you accountable.

  • And remember, everyone is fighting a battle.

What did you enjoy about this episode? What was your takeaway. Let's continue the conversation  on Instagram or Twitter or you can send me an email here. 

Thank you for following along life with me. I love being apart of your day. And as always, I hope this show helps you survive a little easier.

A new episode every Tuesday... just subscribe.

Subscribe for free on iTunes or Stitcher or your favorite podcast app so that you don't miss out on great conversations with women just like you. Women who are surviving and thriving. You don't have to do life alone. Be inspired, encouraged and entertained by women like Sandra Stanley, Shannan Martin, Jamie B. Golden, Mo Isom, Annie F. Downs, Joni Lay from Lay Baby Lay, Christy Nockels, Kay Warren, Suzanne Stabile and many more.

Did you enjoy today's conversation? Rate the podcast.

My goal each week is to encourage you to survive in this very thing called life. If you were encouraged or inspired or entertained, head over to iTunes and leave a brief review with a 5 star rating.

Here is a recent one from "Je$B071980". She said, “I love the topics and guests Sarah chooses - it seems like she reads my mind because I can relate to practically every episode! She has a great conversational tone to her podcasts and is so authentic. I've been so encouraged and have learned so much from this show.”

Your review will help get the podcast in front of new listeners who are just like you looking to know that they aren't alone in life. Thank you for being awesome!