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Back for the Fall Season, with host Cheryl Scruggs

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Cheryl Scruggs returns to the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast after taking time off due to contracting shingles in May, which left her with significant pain and nerve damage that continued into September. Cheryl reflected on how her difficult summer experience taught her important lessons about thriving through challenges rather than just during good times, emphasizing the need to learn how to rest, say no when necessary, and depend more on the Lord.

She reviewed several previous podcast episodes from the spring that listeners should revisit before upcoming fall interviews, including episodes with Deborah Fileta, Dr. Kelly Flanagan, Lindsay Maestas, Amy Hauser, Chelsea Smith, J.R. Briggs and many more.

Cheryl discussed themes of serving, identifying gifts and talents, and what it means to thrive in life. She encouraged listeners to reach out to her via Instagram or the website with topics they would like to hear about, expressing her desire to provide encouragement and guidance. She also invites her listeners to share feedback on topics for future discussions and mentioned her goal for the “Thriving Beyond Belief” podcast.

She welcomes listeners back for the fall season and mentioned upcoming content, inviting feedback on how she can best support and teach realness in life.

Cheryl’s links:

Molly Stillman

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How exactly did I end up here?

I started blogging in college on LiveJournal. (Remember that? It was a whole lot of Dashboard Confessional lyrics and was incredibly emo.) In 2007, I moved to WordPress and wanted to bring joy to people through my satirical writing. I wanted to be the next version of “The Onion,” if you can believe it. Then, over the years, the content began to change. I started sharing more about my life and suddenly I realized that there were people reading this blog that weren’t just my dad and my sister. So, while the content certainly changed over the last 13+ years, the mission certainly has not. True joy from within looks different than I thought it once did. When you step into this little space, I genuinely want you to feel like you’re hanging out with a dear friend. So, what are you going to find here? Here I’ll talk about everything from ethical fashion and clean beauty, to my passion for ending human trafficking, child sponsorship with Compassion International, clean beauty (and my favorite mascaras!), real food and some easy recipes, my life as a wife and mom, and so much more. I pray you’re encouraged.

 

 

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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Sarah Bragg

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My Story: Finding my voice.

My twenties were categorized as driven and successful. My resume boasted of working for influential organizations. I was a popular communicator traveling across the globe to speak to students. And I became an author at the young age of 27.

But then, I turned 30, had kids, faced some rejection and was felt like I had peaked in life. Where the twenties were driven with confidence, my thirties felt like a lonely space. Having accomplished so much in life to that point, I wondered if this was it. I felt like there was a formula to life, a certainty to things. But my thirties proved that life was more uncertain than I had believed.

In those years, I longed to communicate with women again. I longed to connect with others through conversation. In October of 2015, the podcast, Surviving Sarah, was born. It was to be a place where I could use my voice again to help other women know they aren’t alone. It was a place where I could help women survive right where they are—in their life, their relationships, their work and their faith.

After years of living and learning, I wrote a new book about how motherhood has raised me. “A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself” is a guide that captures that journey of realizing that as I was parenting my girls, I was actually parenting myself.

In 2024, I released my next book: “Is Everyone Happier Than Me? An Honest Guide to the Questions That Keep You up at Night.” This book is an honest look at the questions we ask in midlife. It’s a book that helps us navigate those questions and hopefully discover how to find a sense of happiness, peace and connection right where we are.

Now, my forties are categorized as a different confidence—a confidence in the journey of discovering who I am and stepping confidently into that person. It’s a journey defined by curiosity and surrendering to the uncertainty of it all. And as Anne Lamont says, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty.” By embracing the uncertainty with curiosity, my faith has been reconstructed.

 

 

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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Cheryl Scruggs (Solo Episode)

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An all new, solo episode of Thriving Beyond Belief, with Cheryl Scruggs!

 

 

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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Cheryl Scruggs (Solo Episode)

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The first episode of 2024!

 

 

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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Cheryl Scruggs: Are You Struggling with FEAR? (Solo Episode)

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Are you thriving beyond your wildest dreams? Want to do this together? Listen in to this episode and challenge yourself to THRIVE!

In this episode we deal straight up with FEAR!

 

 

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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Cheryl Scruggs: Are You THRIVING? (Solo Episode)

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Are you thriving beyond your wildest dreams? Want to do this together? Listen in to this episode and challenge yourself to THRIVE!

 

 

 

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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REPLAY: Nancy Houston

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I am so excited to have Nancy Houston with me today on Thriving Beyond Belief! We talk about a topic that is necessary in our culture today and one that is good for our hearts. We discuss intimacy within marriage!

Nancy shares her story with us and how she has gotten to where she is today. Nancy’s book Love and Sex was released in February, which is the Christian guide to healthy intimacy. She wrote the book for those 18 and older to try and help others find their pathway to healthy intimacy. She is also a certified sex therapist who devotes her time to helping couples restore their relationships, seek healing and help, and to fully enjoy marriage the way God intended it to be.

Nancy had some beautiful things to say regarding her past and dealing with abuse. She reminds us that in Scripture, God shares that He is not ashamed of us or what has happened to us, but He wants to meet us and reconstruct from the ruins of our past. She also shares that we must recognize the need for healing. She discusses coming from a place to self-hatred to seeking outside help that helped reinforce that her past was not her fault and that your past is not your fault. We see that through His Word, the Lord wants to meet us in the midst of our hurt and be our great Healer.

Nancy’s definition of thriving is facing our negative realities and walk through them to experience the LIFE on the other side. We have to leave our Egypt to reach our promised land. It doesn’t mean it is an easy journey, but it is a worthy one. Our God wants us to thrive in this way in all areas of our life- including our sex life with our spouse!

Nancy reminds us that God specifically designed us with a purpose. He is not ashamed of sexuality because He designed us to be sexual beings that gain attachment and closeness within the bond of marriage through intimacy. He desires that your intimate life is enjoyable and strengthens the marriage! We as a Christian culture need to remember to connect our spirituality with our sexuality. Often we don’t believe they are connected. But, in fact, they are stronger when they are connected.

We discuss at length those that are currently dealing with a disconnect in their marriage. Nancy discusses the scientific reasoning behind our need for attachment within marriage, what leads to breaks in the attachment, and how we can work through better communication to repair the disconnect. She encourages couples to learn to tell your spouse what you need instead of keeping score against them. Rather than blame your spouse, ask for what you feel you are lacking. She also encourages those that have tried everything and their spouse is unwilling to change to keep seeking help. Continue to pray over your marriage and tap into resources to find that intimacy again.

We end with talking about how sex in marriage was not created to be an obligation to either party, but to be a beautiful and pleasurable experience. Nancy talks through Scripture that beautifully portrays what intimacy in marriage looks like for both people, male and female.

Join me today as we gain wisdom in being healthy in every way in our marriages.

 

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REPLAY: Matt & Lauren Chandler

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I’m currently away helping my daughter and her family adjust to the newest addition, so here is a special replay of one of my personal favorite episodes featuring my husband, Jeff and our very good friends, Matt and Lauren Chandler!

Matt Chandler is the lead pastor of The Village Church in North Texas. He and Lauren have three children and have had the blessing of being married for almost 20 years! Matt and Lauren have been able to write many books over the years, but we discuss in particular Matt’s book A Mingling of Souls, as it relates to love, marriage, sex, and dating.

Matt and Lauren talk to us about some amazing truths they have learned along the way while in marriage, growing their family, and even through incredible hardship. They give such wisdom and insight on the deeper issues that we all deal with and what to truly seek in order to work on marriage, family, and with the world.

They also give great advice to both men and women on things that each sex needs to diligently work at either because it does not come naturally or because culture has told us that men have particular roles and women have particular roles. The mandate of the Gospel, however, extends to everyone. So we discuss how to live in the freedom of the Gospel to be exactly who the Lord created and intended us to be.

We hope you enjoy this refreshing time of talking with dear friends and learning what we can from both our stories and others’!

 

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084: Mike & Jennifer Foster

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Marriage Episode:

You know it’s going to be a fun episode when we have my husband, Jeff, on the episode with me! We had the pleasure of interviewing Mike and Jennifer Foster on this week’s Thriving Beyond Belief.

We absolutely love what the Fosters are about. They are about simple, organic means of continuing to date your spouse in marriage. Married with 2 children, the Fosters journey has not always been easy, but they talk about how they have navigated the marriage journey together and how their relationship is stronger than ever!

We cover everything from good communication, seasons of the unknown, their story, how to date intentionally, and more. This episode is such an uplifting and practical look at how we can further believe in and fight for our marriage and our spouse.

One of my favorite topics we discuss in this episode is how fear can radically impact our marriage relationship. Mike and Jennifer talk about how fear erodes the qualities in marriage we long for: trust, communication, peace, etc. Marriage is worth fighting for and we need to be vulnerable enough to push past the fear to get to a truthful conversation. Those truthful conversations lead to healing and our spouse’s true intentions are made clear. Not having those meaningful conversations leads to disconnection. Let fear be the push towards conversation instead of being the reason to deter conversation!

Jeff and I’s first marriage is a classic example of what happens when couples do not communicate well and do not have Jesus at the center of the relationship. But through coming to personal relationships with the Lord and learning what a healthy marriage truly is, we learned, as Jeff so wisely said, that  we are to learn that each other’s voices and our own voices are important in the marriage. We are equal in voice in the marriage. We are equal in what we bring to the marriage.

Mike and Jennifer share their own story and realizing that they had fallen into a state of not really “seeing” one another. They had fallen into busy schedules and routines and just surviving. Can anyone else relate to this? But one day, through open and honest conversation, they realized they wanted their marriage to Thrive! This led to a stronger marriage than ever and even led to their current ministry to other couples.

Touch, communication and balance with schedules, and intentional date nights are keys Mike says that help with a healthy marriage. There are so many wonderful nuggets of wisdom in this episode that I can’t wait for you to listen along!

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Highlights:

  • They are about simple, organic means of continuing to date your spouse in marriage.
  • Mike and Jennifer share their own story and realizing that they had fallen into a state of not really “seeing” one another. They had fallen into busy schedules and routines and just surviving.
  • We cover everything from good communication, seasons of the unknown, their story, how to date intentionally, and more.

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