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Brandice Lardner

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In this episode of Thriving Beyond Belief, Cheryl Scruggs welcomes Brandice Lardner for an honest and hope-filled conversation about many of us having been in a war with our own bodies for years.

Even though as Christian women we know that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, many of us have been in a war with our own bodies for years. We tediously track calories, eliminate food groups, jump on the latest exercise trend, and wonder if all this business about balancing hormones is real or just someone trying to sell us something.

Through all the conflicting advice, weight lost and regained, and time spent berating ourselves for failing, we never get to the heart of the matter: why we started overeating in the first place or why our sense of worth has become entangled in what we eat and how we look. We focus on improving the outside, hoping it will make us feel better inside. But true, lasting, life-altering freedom is found by changing from the inside out.

Fully Nourished invites you to step off the exhausting treadmill of dieting and into the freedom Jesus offers. Certified nutrition coach and personal trainer Brandice Lardner gently guides you through sustainable practices grounded in biblical truth, sound nutrition, and habit-building science. You’ll discover how to nourish your body without shame, renew your mind with grace, and build habits that support your health, your peace, and your calling.

 

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.

Debra Fileta: Do You Have Good People Skills?

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Join me today as I chat with the beautiful  Debra Fileta who gives us a lifeline to THRIVING!

Debra Fileta is a Licensed Professional Counselor and bestselling author of eight books. She’s a national speaker who travels the country reaching millions of people with the message of mental, emotional, and relational healing.

Her work has been featured by numerous media outlets, national television, syndicated radio, and ministries and churches nation-wide including Saddleback Church, Fresh Life Church, Lakewood Church, Focus on the Family, Better Together, The 700 Club, and many more.

She’s also the founder of the Debra Fileta Counselors Network, a national team of faith-forward, clinically-informed counselors, integrating faith and psychology to help people navigate personal and relational issues.

Debra is also the host of the popular podcast, and nationally syndicated radio show Talk To Me, where she hosts on-air counseling style sessions with people from across the country including notable pastors and leaders, as well as every-day hotline callers talking about the things many others shy away from.

She is the author of eight books, including True Love Dates, Choosing Marriage, Love in Every Season, Are You Really OK?, Married Sex, RESET, Soul Care, and her first children’s book, Any Day Emotions.

She and her husband, John, and their four children live in Lancaster, PA. You can connect with her on Instagram or at DebraFileta.com.

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Dr. Kelly Flanagan: The Road Less Triggered

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Don’t miss this episode! Join me today as I chat with Dr. Kelly Flanagan who gives us a lifeline to THRIVING!

His new book The Road Less Triggered is AMAZING!

There is a moment that repeats itself over and over again in your relationships–it’s the moment you’re triggered to flip from connection mode into protection mode. This moment is the unseen source of all disconnection and conflict. However, it happens so quickly and unconsciously most of us feel powerless to choose connection. The Road Less Triggered will empower you to:

  • quickly disrupt your defensiveness
  • turn inner turmoil into inner peace
  • connect with clarity, curiosity, and compassion

Through a powerful blend of psychology, spirituality, real-world examples, and practical exercises, clinical psychologist Dr. Kelly Flanagan illustrates in actionable detail the process through which you can free your relationships from the patterns that imprison them. Can you imagine uninterrupted peace with your partner? Kids who leave home but also love to return? Friendships that deepen instead of dwindle? Ruptured relationships restored to their highest potential? A professional life freed from personal hang-ups? All those rewards and more lie just ahead of you, down the road less triggered.

  • Husband to Dr. Kelly. That’s right: Dr. Kelly and Dr. Kelly. Airport security loves us.
  • Father of three: Aidan (21), Quinn (17), and Caitlin (15).
  • Clinical psychologist with a Ph.D. from Penn State University.
  • Best-selling and award-winning author of three non-fiction books and one novel.
  • Personal coach to a handful of big-hearted high achievers
  • Keynote speaker and closet stand-up comic

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Laura Murray

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Join me today as I chat with the beautiful  Laura B. Murray who gives us a lifeline to THRIVING!

Laura joins Cheryl Scruggs on Thriving Beyond Belief to talk about the deeper meaning of hospitality and why it’s about far more than opening your home. Drawing from her book Becoming a Person of Welcome, Laura shares how true hospitality begins with the heart and becomes a spiritual practice of making others feel seen, valued, and loved.

In this conversation, Laura challenges the idea of hospitality as performance and offers a richer vision rooted in God’s welcome of us. Through stories from her Armenian heritage, everyday community life, and church leadership, she invites listeners to embrace authentic belonging, meaningful connection, and a life shaped by generosity and grace.

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Lindsey Maestas: Living Easy With Lindsey!

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Join me today as I chat with the beautiful lady Lindsey Maestas who gives us a lifeline to THRIVING!

Hi! I’m Lindsey Maestas!

But I might love you a little bit more if you call me Linds. 😉

I am a podcaster, entrepreneur, writer and speaker, but mostly just a multi-passionate girl who loves Jesus, loves people and loves allll the food.

Sometimes I have so much passion that it feels like I might explode – but I promise I won’t. I’m in this for you and for the long haul!

If you know me, you know that I’m absolutely obsessed with my husband (Jesse) and two “baby” boys (Sutton and Saxon) and of course, our sweet puppies, Milo and Biscuit.

I never would have thought that a day spent on my couch – writing wildly personal details about my messy past of dating and my own journey through postpartum anxiety – would lead to 3 million yearly blog readers, over 400,000 podcast downloads and a community of tens of thousands of women that I get to virtually share all the secrets & all the real life with. God is good and life is cool.

I’m a firm believer that relationships change everything. Your marriage doesn’t have to feel impossible. Your motherhood doesn’t have to feel like a train-wreck.

The “good life” definitely does not have to be behind you. And healthy, fun, adult friendships don’t have to feel impossible.

I have one goal through this ministry: to talk about the things that nobody likes to talk about in order to remind you that you are more than your mess.

We only have one life – and you don’t want to just ‘get by’, do you? That isn’t living.

You have been created for a specific purpose. It’s just not satisfying to be told that ‘we are enough’ and to go on our way. Sometimes we just aren’t enough; sometimes life is hard. I know I rarely feel as if I’m enough.

But God wants us to see Him more clearly in order to live life more abundantly. If you are looking to find that ‘more to life’, you came to the right place.

Every single day, I share God’s truth and my heart to help you flourish in your marriage, your faith and your motherhood in a way you never have before. This is what makes me thrive. So – truly – thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me!

 

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Chelsea Smith: ‘I Do’ Today: A 52-Week Guide to the Marriage You’ve Been Waiting For

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Join me today as I chat with the beautiful lady and best-selling author Chelsea Smith who gives us a lifeline to ‘I Do’ Today: A 52-Week Guide to the Marriage You’ve Been Waiting For

Do you dream of having one of “those” marriages–a marriage full of connection, trust, and laughter? A marriage that gets better year by year? Whether you’ve been married a few months or a few decades, the challenges of marriage–like finances, kids, grief, sex, and even everyday annoyances–might make that dream feel far away. But it doesn’t have to feel that way.

After twenty-five years of marriage, Chelsea Smith knows that the best way for a marriage to thrive is by taking it one day, one decision, one conversation at a time. In “I Do” Today, she gets you and your spouse talking and growing together in life-changing ways. Each week, you’ll explore a new topic through:

  • Short readings with real-life stories that offer validation, hope, and motivation
  • Reflection prompts and conversation starters that go deep without being daunting
  • Activity ideas to bring you closer together (and have fun along the way!)
  • Simple, easy-to-follow steps for strengthening your emotional and physical connection

“I Do” Today helps you and your spouse actively choose each other again and again as together, day by day, you create the marriage you’ve always wanted.

 

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J.R. Briggs: The Art of Asking Better Questions: Pursuing Stronger Relationships, Healthier Leadership, and Deeper Faith

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Join me today as I chat with and best-selling author JR Briggs who gives us a lifeline to The Art of Asking Better Questions!

What he teaches us: There are few things in life he’s more passionate about than asking great questions—and that is teaching others to ask better questions.

J.R.’s Wisdom:
1. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask God, yourself, and others.
2. There’s not a single area of your life—not one—where improving the quality of the questions you ask won’t improve the quality of your life and the lives of those around you.
3. We don’t have a shortage of information; we have a shortage of wisdom, curiosity, and wonder. What’s needed is the kindling of a desire for and ability to ask the right questions at the right time in the right situation for the right
reason.
4. If we want information, Google it. But if what we’re after is wisdom and connection, we need questions.
5. Jesus was a brilliant question-asker. In the Gospels, Jesus asked over 300 questions. He was asked over 180 questions—and yet he only directly answered five of them. There’s much to be learned about what, when, where,
and how he asked questions.

Here’s what we explore in the interview:

1.) Why questions are so important (but why we don’t ask them very much)

2.) How questions impact our faith

3.) Leadership and the art of asking better
questions

4.) Ridiculously practical ways to ask better questions.

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Hannah Keeley

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On this episode of Thriving Beyond Belief, Cheryl Scruggs welcomes Hannah Keeley

Hey there! I’m Hannah … a mom of seven, a wife of one, and a lover of Jesus. I believe there is God-given greatness in everyone. And I have an insatiable desire to help them discover this and let the world see who they really are. Oh, and I’m crazy about helping moms.

“Because I know what it’s like.”

After a few kids, I found myself out of shape, overwhelmed, deep in debt, and surrounded by clutter. I knew something had to change when I found myself sobbing uncontrollably in the laundry pile (at least it was clean laundry).

“When I realized no one was going to come in and rescue me, I decided to rescue myself.”

With God’s Word and bull-headed determination, I was able to create a better life for myself. In fact, better than I ever imagined. Now I help moms everywhere do the same.

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Courtney Joseph Fallick

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Courtney Joseph Fallick is a passionate follower of Jesus and proud mother of two college students—her 20-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter. She also shares her life with a beloved 9-year-old dog named Snowball. Living in Ohio, she and her family are devoted fans of Ohio State.

For seven years, Courtney homeschooled her children before they transitioned to a Christian school, and now both are pursuing higher education. She holds a degree in Evangelism and Discipleship from the Moody Bible Institute, though she humbly describes it as a reflection of her deep love for studying God’s Word and serving others.

Raised in a strong Christian household as the youngest of three sisters, Courtney married her high school sweetheart after four years of dating, sharing 19 years together. In 2015, the end of her first marriage brought unexpected challenges, but Courtney’s journey took a surprising turn in 2023 when she remarried a widower from her church. Now, she is joyfully blending families, embracing the new adventure with her husband, his two daughters, and a son-in-law. While life brings challenges, Courtney remains deeply grateful for God’s faithfulness through life’s storms.

Loren Jackson Photography

In her day-to-day, Courtney finds joy in coffee, good books, fresh flowers, lighting candles, and walks with her dog. While not a fan of exercise, she still commits to working out 4–5 times a week. She describes herself as an optimistic idealist who sees the glass half full, though she wishes for better cooking skills and more organized closets. Her favorite place to recharge is by the ocean.

Galatians 6:9, “Do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season you will reap a harvest if you do not give up,” serves as Courtney’s life verse, grounding her faith and purpose. With a heart full of gratitude, she approaches each opportunity to share encouragement with humility and prayer, always reminding others of God’s unfailing love: “Keep walking with the King!”

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CHERYL SCRUGGS is the host of the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast. She and her husband, Jeff, are doing life together and thriving in Dallas, Texas.

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