In Joy Life with Mattie Jackson

This week’s guest is speaking my language on every level!! He’s been studying joy as a pastor and researcher for 5 years and, in his words, “mining the book of Philippians for joy for 27.” As a But Randy Frazee’s mission is not just to teach us about joy. He’s here to teach us how to build our joy muscles; how to, as his new book The Joy Challenge’s subtitle assures: discover the ancient secret to experiencing worry-defeating, circumstance-defying happiness. Who doesn’t want that?? Randy walks us through the spiritual, the scientific, and the practical of seeking and sustaining life-changing joy. Not just temporal happiness, but a lifestyle and mindset of joy despite our circumstances, our people, our pasts, and our greatest worries. Randy draws ancient wisdom from the apostle Paul in Philippians as well as modern neuroscience and physiology to give us a full picture understanding of how our minds and spirits work together to lead us into lives of daily joy. Follow Randy here https://www.randyfrazee.com/ Get The Joy Challenge book here https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Challenge-Experiencing-Worry-Defeating-Circumstance-Defying/dp/0718086163

What if the dreaded, unexpected thing in your life is actually the beginning of becoming your truest, most flourishing self? This is Jillian’s story. This is my story. This is all of our stories at some point in life if we learn to yield to the God who redeems EVERYTHING. After receiving a life-altering diagnosis for her unborn son,Jillian Benfieldfaced not just unmatched grief as a young mother, but also a dismantling and rebuilding of all she believed, in her faith and in her overall worldview of personal value and worthiness. Overcoming her unexpected circumstance wasn't an option. She would have toundergoit instead. She would learn to find God’s goodness in a situation that she couldn’t qualify as good. She would discover who she truly was and who God was leading her to become. In her own transforming journey through the challenges of the unexpected, Jillian proves how many good gifts seasons of grief can offer. In her book,The Gift of the Unexpected, she helps you break down the false constructs you've built around God and your identity. You won't avoid your pain, but you'll learn to feel it, in a healing way. And you'll discover how your internal transformation leads to external purpose.

I’d be willing to bet you’ve found and are listening to this week’s episode on your phone, right? So let me start by saying – phones are not evil! But we’re lying to ourselves if we don’t admit their power to addict, distract, and ultimately steal from many of life’s joys given the CONSTANT connection and attention most of us give them. Did you know…? 91% of adults have their phone within arm’s reach all day, every day. 63% are trying to limit screen usage somehow but struggle to do so successfully. This week’s guest has fallen victim to constant phone absorption, as we all have, but he is offering us a solution. Joey Odom, co-founder of theArobox & app, is bringing us the first solution designed specifically for families looking toreduce screen timeandincrease quality timetogether. The beauty of Aro? They’re not calling us back to flip phones or swearing off technology – they’re a tech company after all! Their ultimate purpose is to give us the tools, structure, and the emotional investment necessary to reset our relationship with our phones, and thus, reprioritize all the other relationships that have been suffering as a result of our devices. There’s no shame here. Just the courage to face a tough reality along with a much needed, real solution. Thank you, Aro!

Well friends, this is the one either you’ve been eagerly waiting for OR the one that scares you the most to open 🤪. This week, we’re talking all things marriage and intimacy. This was obviously such a gift for me as Connor and I approach our first anniversary next month, but Lindsey’s work as a marriage and intimacy coach, writer, and podcaster serves those in any and every stage of marriage. Over her past decade of working with women, she’s curated 3 online courses to help us enrich specific life seasons that often need a little extra TLC. The Wife Project: From Roommates to Soulmates, The Sex & Intimacy Project for Couples, and The Modern Proverbs 31 Woman course all stem from her passion for thriving, God-centered relationships and are rooted in her own decade plus-long marriage as well as her work alongside women and men far ahead in years and wisdom. I love her because she is a beautifully and confidently open book. Anything you’ve walked through, wondered, or struggled with, Lindsey likely addresses with us or on her podcast, the Living Easy podcast. No one sits down with Lindsey and leaves feeling alone. Her heart is for all of us to walk in rich, flourishing relationship, and she’s here to help us do just that. Follow Lindsey https://www.instagram.com/livingeasywithlindsey/ Check out all Lindsey’s courses here https://stan.store/lindsey

I couldn’t ask for a more perfect guest for Easter week than Molly Stillman. Her debut book, If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry: How Death, Debt, and Comedy Led to a Life of Faith, Farming, and Forgetting What I Came into This Room For, releases TODAY and is a start-to-finish witness that God is always working to redeem our messes. From the tragic loss of her mother at age 17, to incurring and digger her way out of a mountain of debt at 21, to thoughts of ending her own life, Molly chronicles her “emotional, financial, and spiritual rock bottom” for readers with the ultimate hope that they never give up hope for their own stories. As a former improv and sketch comedian, our conversation is all that it implies – big laughs and occasional tears, all rooted in her since found unshakeable foundation of faith. More than anything, Molly wants YOU to know that YOUR STORY has power, potential, and endless kingdom purpose in the hands of the God she knows and loves. No one is too far gone. Nothing is beyond redemption.

Do any of these exasperating statements sound familiar to you? That really was the last time. I’m going to do it differently than they did. I can’t keep letting this affect me. I’ve got to move on. Me too. And this week’s guest’s personal story and his life work is to help people like you and me get past our pasts. Jason VanRuler is a liscenced therapist, coach, and speaker working with clients from high-level business execs and artists to those transitioning out of incarceration. And the one thing he sees we all have in common: the tendency to let our pasts rob our present and threaten our futures. Jason is kind. He is wise. And he is so generous to equip us with the tangible ways to start actively working through the parts of our story we continue to feel or fall victim to. And the best part of all of this? When we learn how to get past our broken past, it leads to greater connection – with our loved ones, with ourselves, and with all the goodness around us. Follow Jason OrderGet Past Your Past: How Facing Your Broken Past Leads toConnection

This week is super fun because we’re flipping the script and having Shannon interview ME! I’ve loved our one on one time with y’all, talking through different topics and issues that affect all of us. But I thought with season 3 underway and so much exciting change happening in my world, why not take a pause and share a little more detail about my day to day right now.

If you’re a country music fan like me, you likely already knowGranger Smithas a platinum-selling country singer/songwriter, but did you know he is now a NYT best-selling author?? Granger’s story,Like A River: Finding the faith and strength to move forward after loss & heartache,is devasting and tender and ultimately, charged with hope. Following the tragic, sudden loss of his 3-year-old son, Granger walks us through not only the crippling fears and failures of his grief journey but also the radical spiritual and mental transformation that has led to his healing. For anyone struggling with loss or simply battling the how’s and why’s of life’s heartbreaks, Granger is your friend and guide through darkness.

I think it’s safe to say all of us have felt that churning inside, that unwelcomed angst, when a friend or family member seems to overstep or under appreciate or fail to communicate yet again. No one wants to be trapped in cycles of less safety and more stress with the people you love, but many of us do and simply learn to “live with it.”Courtney Burgknows and shows us a better way. Through decades of both personal struggle and professional coaching around co-dependency and boundaries, Courtney calls and equips women to the work of pursuing freer and richer love in their relationships. In her new book,Loyal to a Fault: How to Est. New Patters When Loving Others Has Left You Hurting,she helps us identify patterns of disfunction/tension in our closest relationships and then showers us with empathy and instruction on how to live better boundaried and, thus, more lovingly with those around us. I walked away from this conversation feeling freer to communicate clearly, better aware of my own needs and core values, and practically equipped to establish boundaries for myself and for others. What a gift her hard-won wisdom is to all of us! Follow Courtney:Instagram&Online Community BuyLoyal to a Fault Join her in reading 5 Days to a Value Driven Life

Season 3 is here, and I can think of no better place to start than with my new friend,Justin Whitmel Earley.As both a corporate lawyer, man of God, and dad of 4 boys under 10, Justin has cracked the code on HABITS. Seems simple right? Don’t we all want to foster good habits in our lives and in our families? Sure, but Justin’s 3 books focus on just that – the powerful creation and rhythms of habits in work, in the household, and most recently, in friendships. His latest book,Made for People,addresses the devastating epidemic of loneliness plaguing our country and invites us to follow his lead in the “fight for a life of friendship” and connection. His wisdom has been found and lived in real time, and he’s giving us the roadmap with 10 of his arts and habits of relationship – a few we touch on being vulnerability, honest encouragement and rebuke, and the courage to say the awkward things. There’s no time in history I believe we need the up-close love and support of our people more than right now. Justin tells us not only is it possible, but it can actually save our lives.