26 AGO. 2021 · I don’t know about you, but it feels like now that school is back in session I can finally exhale and breathe a little bit knowing there’s going to be more routine in my days.  Maybe it was getting one ready for college, or mentally preparing for high school with my middle son, or the beginning of kindergarten with my youngest—but life has felt like a lot the last few months.  If you’re feeling this same way, today’s show with Jennifer Dukes Lee is for you. Jennifer shares with us a time when she was at a breaking point in her own life and realized the need to “un-hurry” her heart. She gave herself permission to slow down and wait for the better things that come only with slow growth and deeper connection with the Lord.  I love the practical advice she shares from her new book Growing Slow and how we can: stop living in hurriedness and instead rest in Jesus, trust the winter seasons in life to God even when we don’t see his hand moving, find rest knowing that the small, slow things we do in parenting often produce big fruit in our kids’ lives. I’ll leave you with my favorite parenting quote from Jennifer: “In my most insecure moments as a mom, the only thing that ever gave me hope and guidance was the gospel.”  Amen and amen!  Don’t miss this much-needed word for all of us taking a deep breath at the beginning of a new school year!

5 AGO. 2021 · Sometimes we confuse spiritual health with mental health, assuming they are one in the same when that’s often far from the truth. Knowing this, it seems appropriate to take a little deeper dive into our emotional health with Licensed Professional Counselor, Debra Fileta. We cover a lot of ground today with topics like: ways to take inventory of our mental health, when spiritual answers don’t address our mental health issues, the importance of modeling emotional health with our kids, training our kids to identify their emotions, recognizing our kids’ default emotion and investigating the deeper issue. And please don’t miss Debra’s advice on preparing our kids for dating relationships, the frequent pitfalls they may face, and resources we can use to navigate the dating years. Here’s to a show addressing the very important mental and emotional health issues facing all parents!

22 JUL. 2021 · Here’s the thing about parenting—It’s really hard to evaluate how you are doing or identify areas of improvement when you’re in the thick of it every day. Because parenting comes with no performance evaluations or long-term guarantees of success, we often find ourselves simply trying to survive, not thrive (I speak from experience).   Danny Huerta from Focus on the Family joins us today with some valuable benchmarks to consider in our parenting journey. His new book, 7 Traits of Effective Parenting, very practically lists some of the most critical areas of our parenting and how to assess how we’re doing or where we need to make some tweaks.   Some of the traits of effective parenting we discuss include adaptability, respect, and intentionality—and believe you me, there’s some truth spoken today that I needed to hear and I bet you will feel the same way, too.   Danny also shares with us the areas of our culture he believes will most challenge our kids' faith and gives us his thoughts on how to prepare them to live biblically.   I hope you’re having a wonderful summer, and I’m so grateful you’re joining me on this parenting journey! 

15 JUL. 2021 · Imagine this: You’re picking up your son from the first day of school after waiting to hear all about his day. Even as he’s closing the car door you begin asking the most critical of questions like... How is your teacher? What friends are in your class? Who did you meet? Did you talk to any girls? What did you have for lunch? Are you tired? Why are you so quiet? Were the kids mean to you?   Apparently unaware of the millions of questions swirling in your mind, your son simply responds that his day was “good.”   I feel your pain (like really feel your pain), and David Thomas from Daystar Counseling in Nashville does, too. He’s joining us today to talk all about the boys in our lives, including their developmental stages: Explorer (0-4) Lover (5-8) Individual (9-12) Wanderer (13-17) Warrior (18-23).   We also discuss the best ways to communicate and connect with our boys, which apparently does not involve barraging them with questions the second they get into the car (my bad).   If you have a boy in your life, please don’t miss this episode with David Thomas. He’s an expert on all things boys, and your son will thank you (probably without using words) for listening! 

17 JUN. 2021 · In honor of Father’s Day this weekend, Pardon the Mess is dedicating our whole show today to the dads we love!   Former NFL quarterback Jeff Kemp speaks all over the country, championing fatherhood by speaking into God’s design for dads as difference-makers in their families. Today we’re blessed to have him speaking into our own families by sharing his passion behind building up men, encouraging them to be strong leaders both in our homes and in the world.   Here are just a few of the powerful topics we cover: dads building healthy relationships with their kids, needs our kids have that are best filled by their dads, healing from our own dad wounds, ways to evaluate your fathering, a reminder for imperfect fathers to run toward their perfect father, and a month long challenge for wives to support and build up their husbands.   Not only do the dads around us need to hear this word today, there’s also great encouragement for moms that I can’t wait for you to hear. Join me in celebrating our dads with a great message from Jeff Kemp as we head into Father’s Day weekend.   Learn more about the Fatherhood Comission and Jeff Kemp. 

17 MAY. 2021 · It’s officially here, the last week of our prayer journal!   I have mixed emotions as we wrap up the 2020–2021school year, especially as the mom of a graduating senior. Yet I’m so thankful that even as we’ve braved the hard places of a pandemic, we’ve come together each week (okay, most weeks) to faithfully pray that our kids are marked by the things of God.   We’ve prayed that our kids are marked with integrity, confidence, generosity, endurance, and much more. But these are nothing more than admirable qualities if they aren’t used for God’s kingdom purposes.   Before Jesus ascended to heaven, he gave us our mission. He told us to go and make disciples, sharing the story of his grace and love (Matthew 28). The Great Commission is our central mission. The same is true for our kids.   But it all starts at home. It happens in the seemingly insignificant moments of reading Bible stories to our toddlers and the really hard places of pointing them to Jesus on the heels of their biggest mistakes and greatest obstacles. Please let us never underestimate the significance of our jobs as moms and dads, discipling our kids to share the gospel to the next generation.   Let’s wrap up this school year by praying that our kids are marked by the mission of Jesus, doing it with truth, discipline, purity, and every other characteristic of God we’ve prayed over them this year.   I’m so grateful for your investment in praying for your kids, and I hope you’ve seen God’s hand move in remarkable ways in their lives.   Have a wonderful summer and keep listening to Pardon the Mess on Thursdays as we have lots of great shows coming your way. 

10 MAY. 2021 · It’s almost unbelievable that we’re down to our last two weeks of praying through the 2020–2021 prayer journal. As we’re beginning to wrap it up, I’m just so thankful that you’ve been doing this together with me.    As we pray this week for our kids to be marked by “remembering,” we’re praying they will trust God’s faithfulness in their present circumstances because they have seen his goodness in the past.    I love the reference to an Ebenezer stone in 1 Samuel 7. After experiencing a huge battle victory, Samuel grabbed a stone as a memorial and named it Ebenezer, translated as “the Lord has helped us to this point.” Samuel knew the Israelites’ battle win was significant from a tactical perspective, but he also knew the more significant win was the reminder that God had protected them in the past and he’d just done it again.    Our kids need the same reminder today that Samuel gave way back then: The God who has taken care of us up to this point will do it again. He is faithful and trustworthy.     What are the Ebenezers in your family? Let’s talk about it on today’s podcast and pray together that our kids are marked by remembering that God will protect all of their days when they are surrendered to him. 

15 ABR. 2021 · It’s cool enough to have one opportunity to chat with Bob Goff, but then to get a second shot that includes his daughter, Lindsey Viducich?   Well, that’s the makings of a podcast packed with laughter and endless nuggets of truth.   Lindsey and Bob co-wrote Everybody, Always for Kids, and they describe it as a book of stories demonstrating how to live out our faith as expressed in love.   Take that in for a hot minute and consider how different our lives, our parenting, and our relationships would be if our primary focus was to express our faith through the lens of love.   As you might expect, there are lots of great stories coming your way on growing up in the Goff household and their crazy antics.   But I was especially challenged by their family goal of picking the meaningful over the practical in life and intentionally drawing others into our circle through the grace of Jesus.   Sit back and enjoy a few minutes of encouragement from Bob Goff and Lindsey Viducich—and then grab a copy of their new book so you can remind your kids that around every corner lies the opportunity to live bigger than ourselves, when we love “everybody, always.”

8 MAR. 2021 · As we begin a new week of praying for our kids, it may seem that praying they are marked by “refinement” is a bit odd; however, we’re asking the Lord to sift out any impurities that keep them from God’s best in their lives.       Refinement is the process of using heat to remove impurities from metal. Only after the gold is refined do the most valuable qualities remain because the impurities and lesser qualities have been eliminated.    God is in the constant process of refining all of us. Even though we’re created in his image, we are free-willed human beings riddled with impurities that don’t line up with who we were created to be. This refinement is best accomplished through trials in our lives, which may be uncomfortable in the moment but are important nonetheless.       As we’re praying for our kids to be marked by refinement, let’s not ask God to remove our kids’ obstacles but rather to remove their impurities. Let’s pray that when the heat intensifies, our kids learn to trust that the One who allows the fire will also bring them through it.   Looking forward to praying God’s refinement over our kids this week.

4 MAR. 2021 · Candace Cameron Bure is on the show today! It’s as if nothing else matters having just reached a new Pardon the Mess podcasting pinnacle. 😀 💕 🙌    To say I love Candace is an understatement of epic proportions.    First of all, she’s Hallmark royalty, and there’s not a one of us that hasn’t needed movies with predictability and a happy ending after the year we’ve weathered. And don’t even get me started with her Full House greatness that marked all of our childhoods.    But then hearing about her life growing up in show business and how her faith has played into her career... well, it’s almost too much.    Candace (which is what I call her now because we’re best friends) very vulnerably shares the struggles she’s recently faced with social media critics and her best parenting advice having raised three kids. She also talks about how she came to know Christ and the impact it has on all facets of her life today.    Check out her new children’s book, Candace’s Playful Puppy, based on the fruit of the spirit, faithfulness. You’ll definitely want to grab it for the younger kids in your life.    Yes, I’m all over the place, and yes I’m giddy!    Please just take a few minutes today and enjoy our conversation with Candace Cameron Bure.