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Amy Hauser

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In this episode of Thriving Beyond Belief, Cheryl Scruggs welcomes Amy Hauser for an honest and hope-filled conversation about faith, resilience, redemption, and learning to thrive through life’s highs and lows.

Amy wears many hats — wife, mom, friend, ministry leader, wellness enthusiast, and encourager — and she brings a beautiful mix of Southern warmth, humor, grit, and deep faith into everything she does.

Born and raised in Thomasville, Georgia, Amy’s life has taken her through places like Tallahassee, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles before bringing her back home to Georgia. Through every season, smooth or difficult, she has seen God’s faithfulness remain steady.

In this conversation, Amy shares about navigating motherhood, raising two boys, including one with additional needs, and finding joy in the everyday moments. She also opens up about her passion for health, wholeness, community, and living with open hands as she trusts God to bring beauty from ashes.

Amy co-founded Project Backyard, a service organization, and 61 Exchange, a women’s ministry created to encourage and uplift women. Alongside her husband, Paul, she has also shared their powerful story of marriage, divorce, and remarriage through I Am Second, offering a beautiful reminder that no one is ever too far gone for God’s grace.

Before this season of life, Amy also served as a teacher, movie producer, nonprofit leader, and communicator. Each chapter has shaped her passion for truth, health, faith, and helping others discover a life rooted in purpose.

140: Laura Smith

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Today on the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast, Laura Smith!

In the new book, How Sweet the Sound: The Power and Promise of 30 Beloved Hymns from Our Daily Bread Publishing, author Laura Smith takes a fresh look at 30 classic hymns, sharing warm devotional stories and making meaningful connections between these songs of the past and our twenty-first century lives.

Do you miss listening to the sweet harmonies of hymns being sung in church? Do you recall precious life memories when a specific hymn encouraged your heart? Hymns will forever be God’s music packed with truth, redemption, and joy, no matter how the times or culture change. There is a reason they still speak to us, generation after generation. How Sweet the Sound marries the past with the present by showing how hymns unite, restore, and re-center God’s children.

Each chapter includes the lyrics to a favorite hymn, an interesting modern-day story of how that hymn continues to impact lives, and questions for contemplation. These stories will appeal to those who grew up in church singing from a hymnal, as well as a new generation seeking truth put to music. You’ll enjoy hearing the stories of how hymns have affected other people’s lives as you remember how the hymns you treasure have affected yours.

About the Author:
Laura L. Smith is a music lover. She grew up singing old hymns in her traditional church, then rushing home to count down the rest of the Top 40 on Billboard’s music charts with Casey Kasem. A best-selling author, Smith speaks around the country sharing the love of Christ with women at conferences and events. She lives in the college town of Oxford, Ohio, with her husband and four kids.

Visit: www.laurasmithauthor.com

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139: Alli Worthington

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Today on the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast, Alli Worthington!

Alli is like many of us – a woman following her calling in ministry, work, and family – who found herself at a spiritual crossroads. God called her into something new, but she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to say yes. Standing Strong delivers a wealth of practical tips and Godly wisdom that will leave you encouraged to follow the dream God has planted in your heart.

You are enough” is a well-intentioned, encouraging message preached to overwhelmed, burnt-out women. Bestselling author Alli Worthington used to be one of them, but when faced with adversity, found herself searching for more. Being enough was no longer enough.

In her new book Standing Strong: A Woman’s Guide to Overcoming Adversity and Living with Confidence (Zondervan, September 2020), Alli encourages women to draw strength from their God-given identities, to overcome the obstacles that keep them from reaching their full potential and living out their dreams, and to walk confidently in the direction of their calling. With God, they are more than enough.

“God has made you strong, with the ability to survive anything that comes your way,” writes Alli. “Even when you feel weak and overwhelmed, you’re stronger thank you think. There is a strength within you that passes human understanding.”

Alli found herself at a spiritual crossroads—the Lord was calling her to step away from her comfort zone and into something new, but she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to say yes. What if everything fell apart? Why should she have to leave something she loved?

Alli is available for interviews and can speak to:

  • A life-changing partnership: saying “yes & Amen” to God
  • How to break through the 6 common roadblocks that hold women back
  • Why self-empowerment can be just as crippling as self-doubt
  • What you need to know about your inner critic
  • The surprising secret to confidence
  • What to do when you feel unsupported in achieving your goals
  • How to become unshakable in the face of adversity
  • The 5-Second Secret to push past self-doubt
  • 6 keys to stepping into the future with strength

“Your calling won’t look like anyone else’s, ever. God chose you. He made you exactly who you are. He set your life in motion. He put you here on this Earth right here, right now because He wants you to partner with Him, and He has something special that only you can do in His kingdom.”

Alli Worthington is known for her straight-talking encouragement and practical tools that help women reach their dreams in business and life. She’s a business coach and co-founder of Called Creatives, where she coaches writers and speakers.

Author of The Year of Living Happy, Fierce Faith, and Breaking Busy, Alli is a well-known speaker and host of the popular podcast, The Alli Worthington Show. Her no-nonsense, guilt-free take on business, family, and balance have led to appearances on TODAY and Good Morning America. Alli lives with her husband, Mark, and their five sons outside of Nashville with the only golden retriever who refuses to retrieve.

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138: Dawn Barton

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Today on the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast, Dawn Barton!

Dawn Barton has endured more pain and heartache in her lifetime than Hallmark can fit into a single movie: the loss of a child, divorce, cancer, rape, near-death of her mother from a brain aneurism, the death of her only sibling, and her husband’s substance abuse.

But because she experienced such incredible pain, she also knows incredible joy… so much so, this sassy southerner refers to herself as a “Joyologist.”

In her new book, Laughing Through the Ugly Cry:… and Finding Unstoppable Joy, Dawn shares her powerful journey to find hope, joy, and laughter in the midst of even the most unfathomable circumstances. And though her trials were heavy, her words are light—laced with the humor and perspective that keep you laughing, no matter what.

“Even in the face of all the things you can’t control – the announcements, the diagnosis, the calls you hoped you’d never get – there’s something you do get to control,” writes Dawn. “Choose to look for joy in the small spaces between fear and confusion, and make that the moral of your story.”

Dawn knows the adversity she’s experienced has enabled her to experience joy in a more profound and vibrant way. Laughing Through the Ugly Cry is a beautiful book that will encourage anyone facing difficulty to do so with humor and faith, and to mindfully seek joy no matter how bleak circumstances may appear.

“Finding joy in your life does not mean you walk around in a perpetual state of skipping and laughing. It doesn’t mean you are grinning and waving to every single passerby, although that would be fun. It means when you are sitting in the pain, you can take a deep breath and smile because you have one more breath to live.”

 

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089: Eryn Eddy

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There are fewer things that bring me more joy than seeing people share their story with authenticity and vulnerability. That is why this week’s episode of Thriving Beyond Belief has brought me so much joy- and I hope it does the same for you. I am so excited for you to hear Eryn Eddy’s story. It is one of overcoming, being true to what God has called you to be, and finding passions in unexpected places.

Eryn shares with us her story of how she has come to where she is. Eryn talks with us about being raised in a Christian home, finding herself working for a ministry, deciding not to go to college, and marrying young. She walks us through this relationship she had with her husband and what ultimately led to their divorce. Eryn is so vulnerable in her story-telling, sharing with us such wise words on truly coming to terms with the fact that nothing can fill the void in our lives other than Jesus. She talks about what voids she was trying to fill through her marriage and how her husband was trying to do the same in different capacities. Trying to fill the void of the Lord in your life with a person, a hobby, a career, children will only leave those voids being manifested in unhealthy ways in your relationships with others and with Jesus.

Eryn shares some life-giving wisdom on her journey and how the Lord taught her to only be satisfied with Him. What came from this broken relationship actually led her to the ministry she runs today- So Worth Loving. It is an apparel brand that prints life-giving and encouraging messages on apparel. She emphasizes that nothing will fulfill like Jesus and no one will champion who you were created to be like Jesus.

Eryn closes with some amazing and practical steps to healing. She shares some amazing ways you can begin to climb out of the pit that you are in and how to lean into the Lord in real ways during that time of heartache, loss, or emptiness.

I want to close with So Worth Loving’s manifesto, in that I hope it beings encouragement to your story and that the Lord wastes nothing. He uses each of our stories to glorify Him and help others in healing.

No matter my history, past mistakes, relationship status, or career choice, I am worthy of love. I am not defined by my past. I am prepared because of it. While my own voice and others may tell me different, I will lean into the safe people that affirm this way of thinking. When I encourage others to love themselves I am encouraging them to treat themselves with kindness, patience, respect, and all that embodies love. We live our life knowing we have worth.  So Worth Loving. It’s a lifestyle.”

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Highlights:

  • Coming soon…

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050: Ed Tandy McGlasson

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I am so excited to have Ed Tandy McGlasson on Thriving Beyond Belief today!

We talk about Ed’s namesake and about what he placed his identity in as a male in western culture. After a football injury, Ed questioned his identity. When Ed experienced a spiritual healing after a spiritual conversation, his journey with the Lord began. He was overwhelmed with the Gospel and how it radically changes lives. What occurred then was a journey with the Lord that leads to his ministry today. Ed wrote the book that we focus mainly on today, “The Difference A Father Makes”, and has spent his life talking with others about what the lack of a Godly father can do in your life, but how the Lord coming into your life can give you a holy identity and an eternal purpose. He also leads Blessing of the Father Ministries.

He broke the cycle of the lack of fatherly wisdom after he accepted the Lord by blessing his daughter’s lives through pointing them back to Jesus.

Ed describes that the words spoken over young men by their fathers shape how those young men see themselves. Those young men grow up and have children and try to find their identity in fatherhood, which drives their sons to performance because of that pressure put on them. This then leads into a unhealthy cycle of hurt boys becoming hurt men.

We talk about how at the root of each of us is the question if we are seen and loved, and how parents can show that love and how the Lord also sees and loves each of us unconditionally.

Ed speaks to those that have never had a Godly example in their lives, are divorced, or have a hard relationship with their father and gives wisdom and hope through scripture for who these people are in Christ. “The Lord chooses us so that He can adopt us as sons and daughters.”

We also speak on the importance of fathers in the lives of their daughters. Ed encourages us women to not let our identity lie in who our father or husband is. We were created to thrive! But too often we seek our identity in other things when we don’t have an example of a Godly father. We must fully put who we are in our Heavenly Father. When we see Jesus as “enough”, we will then teach our children that Jesus is enough for them as well.

This is an episode for everyone, and a topic I know is important in our society today. Please listen and be refreshed and encouraged.

 

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Social Media Links

Instagram: @botfministries

Website: www.blessingofthefather.com

Facebook: @BOTFMinistries

@edtandyTwitter:

 

 

 

039: Katie Smith

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Please welcome Katie Smith today on Thriving Beyond Belief!

Katie has a new blog, KJSonline, where she speaks candidly about her journey. She also loves being a restaurant server because of the amazing interaction she has with others. (And fun fact, she is one of eight children!)

Katie and I have a special bond in that the Lord has used us to speak into other’s lives about divorce and the desire for a redeemed marriage.

We talk about Katie’s journey through marriage, depression, divorce, her years of rebellion, spiritual restoration, and so much more. We discuss the lies that creep in when we think marriage is the root issue of our discontentment. Katie also talks about the Lord whispering to her that intimacy with Him would lead to restoration in all areas of her life.

All of the world’s definitions of happiness happened for Katie, and yet she felt completely empty without the Lord being present in her life. Through slowly reading the Bible again, the one step of obedience after a season of running, Katie was overwhelmed with the peace she received from spending time with the Lord.

Katie talks about her Damascus road experience of realizing what the Lord wanted for her and her story. God was showing Katie that He still answers prayers today. He is the same God that He was in the Bible, and we can trust who He is.We talk about trusting the Lord with His timing. It became more about the relationship with the Lord than the marriage.

Through Katie’s journey, she is encouraging others with their own story. She is using what happened for good and to help others. Please take some time to listen today- it will leave you hopeful and thankful!

 

 

Social Media Links

Instagram: @kjsonline

Blog: www.kjsonline.ca 

Podcast: Lessons Learned Podcast

Twitter: @k_sonline