If there is such a thing as icons of caregiving, Joni Eareckson Tada and her husband Ken are those icons. After a diving accident at 17, Joni became a quadriplegic. Ken and Joni met and joined lives years later. As Ken put it, he “married into disability.” 

These two saints have cared for one another faithfully for over 40 years, but it’s not always perfect. Joni and Ken were generous to share about the hard conversations they’ve had to have about overwhelm and burnout. Even through all the hard, this couple affirms again and again how the experiences of caregiving and care-receiving have shown them the heart of Christ. 

From healthy communication tips to practical ideas for self care to receiving care well—WOW, do we have a lot to learn from these two?! Join us at the table to receive loads of wisdom from two of my heroes, including…

• Ken’s experience of dating and marrying someone with a disability
• What it takes to care for Joni’s body in a day
• How Joni expresses her gratitude for the care she receives
• Practical rhythms of restoration and self care for both caregivers and care-receives
• Navigating conflict in the complexities of caregiving relationships
• Keeping a sense of joy in their unusual marriage 
• Healthy communication tips 

If you are craving some real talk about all things caregiving and care-getting, this episode is for you.

Joni and Friends website

Hope Heals by Katherine and Jay Wolf

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

1 Samuel 16:7

John 15:13

There's so much more to the story: ⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠ for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!

Follow me in Instagram: ⁠⁠@hopeheals⁠⁠

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

⁠Spotify⁠

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up ⁠here⁠ for the Hope Note⁠⁠, our twice-a-month digest of only the good stuff, like reflections from Katherine and a curated digest of the Internet’s most redemptive content.

Get to know us:

⁠⁠⁠Hope Heals⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Hope Heals Camp⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Mend Coffee⁠⁠⁠

⁠Instagram⁠⁠

Matt and Ginny Mooney gave round-the-clock care to their first son, a baby boy who lived for just 99 days. All parents are caregivers, of course, but the Mooneys became caregivers in ways they never could have imagined.

Now, 18 years later, the Mooneys have opted into a lifetime of complex caregiving as they raise an adopted daughter living with autism and cerebral palsy. I am fascinated and challenged by their choice to take on more responsibility, more heartache, and more grief.

My two gracious friends were kind enough to answer every one of my probing questions with humor and vulnerability. And if you join us for this conversation, I bet they’ll feel like your kind, funny friends by the end, too!

Here’s what you can expect to hear on this week’s episode of The GoodHard Story Podcast:

• An honest answer about the most difficult part of caregiving
• The one thing the Mooneys want most for their daughter living with significant disabilities
• What to do when you navigate grief and caregiving differently than your spouse
• The best thing to say and do on tender anniversaries
• What to expect from your typical kids—and what  NOT to expect—when it comes to caregiving for a sibling
• Matt and Ginny’s #1 recommendations for caregiver self care
• If you’re grappling with the good/hard realities of caregiving of any kind, this episode is for you.

Show Notes:

99 Balloons

A Story Unfinished: 99 Days with Eliot

rEcess

bEfriend

Mend Coffee & Goods

Hope Heals Camp

***

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up here for the Hope Note⁠⁠, our twice-a-month digest of only the good stuff, like reflections from Katherine and a curated digest of the Internet’s most redemptive content.

Get to know us:

⁠⁠Hope Heals⁠⁠

⁠⁠Hope Heals Camp⁠⁠

⁠⁠Mend Coffee⁠⁠

Instagram⁠

Can I have 27 minutes of your day? That’s all I need to convince you of something you’ve probably never allowed yourself to believe: you are worthy of care.

I’m highly qualified—and highly persuasive—in making this pitch to you because, after becoming significantly disabled as a 26-year old, I can truly say that I am at peace with my place as a care-receiver. All thanks to 5 mindset shifts. (And a lot of help from Jesus.)

If you haven’t reached that place of bone-deep peace, I’m going to change your mind. Or if you’re a caregiver for a person who needs a lot of extra help, I’m going to invite you into a new way of seeing your situation.

Here’s a preview of what I’ll share on tomorrow’s episode of The Good/Hard Story Podcast. Subscribe on your fave podcast platform to make sure you get the episode tomorrow.

• Identifying the lies you’re believing about needing care

• Realizing you’re not unique in your need for care

• Confronting your bias against dependence

• Reframing caregiving as an invitation, rather than a duty

• Finding the “brand” of care only you can give

I am so passionate about this conversation, and I want you to join me in it. If you need a radical mindset shift when it comes to being a caregiver or a care-getter, this episode is for you.

You asked, we answered. And you know we never shy away from the messy, complex, and possibly even invasive questions because we want to be your living survival guides through it all. Bring it on, people!

This week’s episode of The GoodHard Story Podcast is a special “ask us anything” sesh with me and Jay all about how we’re navigating suffering alongside our nearest and dearest—kids, families of origins, friends that feel like family, and even each other. Sit down with us to hear some deeply personal (yet somehow universal) experiences, opinions, and bits of advice.

We’re sharing all kinds of thoughts about…

• Engaging kindly with family members who are waiting for you to be “healed”

• Feeling like a burden to your family and friends

• Raising kids who are frustrated by your family’s limitations

• Celebrating what we have now while acknowledging what we won’t get back

• The miraculous power of making new memories

• Shielding our kids from suffering

• Finding your “framily” in the places you probably don’t want to find them

• Deciding to have another baby after my stroke

If you need help believing your hardships could be a gift to the people you love most, this episode is for you.

Hope Heals Camp

Find the full story of deciding to have another baby in Treasures in the Dark Entry 66: Carpe Diem

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up for the Hope Note⁠⁠, our twice-a-month digest of only the good stuff, like reflections from Katherine and a curated digest of the Internet’s most redemptive content.

Get to know us:

⁠⁠Hope Heals⁠⁠

⁠⁠Hope Heals Camp⁠⁠

⁠⁠Mend Coffee⁠⁠

Instagram⁠

Grief, then gratitude. The longer I live and the more pain I encounter, I’m further convinced that this is the healthy cycle of suffering: grief then gratitude. Mourn the life you thought you’d have, then give thanks for the one right in front of you.

Because if we’re honest, most of us have some deep-down assumptions about what our lives should look like. For me, that assumption didn’t include a massive stroke or disabilities. And for my friend Sho Baraka, his perfect life plan didn’t involve raising sons with autism.

Sho is living out his good/hard story in that grief-and-gratitude rhythm, and he shared all about how he got to that place. Today, Sho is receiving his family—and his life—as an “abstract masterpiece of what the Master did.”

Whew, how good is that?

If you join us in this conversation, here’s what you’ll take away:

• Encouragement for when we don’t get the miracles we hope for

• How to see suffering as an opportunity rather than a punishment

• A new way to respond to uninvited prayers for healing

• Insight for grieving the loss of the lives we thought we’d have

• Advice for married people raising kids with disabilities

If you need to release your demands for a perfect life and open your hands to the gifts of the life you actually have, this episode is for you.

Show Notes:

Sho Baraka on Instagram

And Campaign

He Saw That It Was Good: Reimagining Your Creative Life to Repair a Broken World by Sho Baraka

The Big Tent Initiative from Christianity Today

A Prayer for Parenting a Child with Special Needs

 Every Moment Holy Volume 3

“Words, 2006”

Spectacular Bond: Reaching the Child with Autism by Miriam Blank

ASD Reading

***

There's so much more to the story:⁠ Click here⁠⁠ for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!

Follow me in Instagram: ⁠⁠@hopeheals⁠⁠

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

⁠Spotify⁠

Want a little hope in your inbox? ⁠⁠Sign up for the Hope Note⁠⁠, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.

Get to know us:

⁠⁠Hope Heals⁠⁠

⁠⁠Hope Heals Camp⁠⁠

⁠⁠Mend Coffee⁠⁠

My son was just six-months and five days old when I nearly died. Virtually 100% of my parenting career has been informed by the deepest kind of pain. I often find myself wondering, if I could, would I give my sons a different story? One that didn’t include my stroke and all the suffering it caused?

I didn’t have much help wrestling with that question as a new (and newly disabled) mom. So I want to encourage and equip you—the mom or dad struggling to shield their kids from the suffering—with practical advice for parenting through your pain.

Our kids are gonna survive the suffering. And, spoiler alert, I believe they might even be better because of it.

Join me and my unbelievably wise friend Susan to find out how to…

• Intentionally narrate your family story to your kids

• Empathetically encourage resilience

• Reframe overwhelm as abundance in your home

• Guide your family through non-linear grief

• Prevent raising kids who are afraid of the world

• Discern what slack to cut in your home during hard seasons

• Find rest for yourself so your can parent well

If you need a parenting pep talk from someone who’s processing her own pain, this episode is for you.

Show Notes:

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

Raising Girls and Boys Podcast with David Thomas and Sissy Goff

“True hospitality is when someone leaves your home feeling better about themselves, not better about you”. - Shauna Niequist

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

James 1:4

Romans 5:3  

Romans 8:28

Ephesians 4:1

***

There's so much more to the story: Click here⁠⁠ for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!

Follow me in Instagram: ⁠⁠@hopeheals⁠⁠

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

⁠Spotify⁠

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up for the Hope Note⁠⁠, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.

If you’re like me, you often hear from people reflecting back on how they made it through a hard time. We need those stories, and I value them deeply. But I really, really want to hear from the people who are in the thick of their pain, without a neat resolution or final closure in sight. My dear friends Brent and Ashley were kind enough to share their experience of present-tense pain, specifically in the form of a life-altering medical diagnosis.

As you and I know all too well, hurt refuses to be contained. It reverberates through families and communities. Brent and Ashley are no exception. Their suffering has had a profound effect on their marriage, their kids, and their friendships. But so has their hope.

Live from the center of the storm, Brent and Ashley are giving you and me a look into how they manage to make it through each day. And I am so eager for you to benefit from their generous, hard-won wisdom.

If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:

• Proof that investing in your community today matters for tomorrow

• Why Christians should be the first to acknowledge the sting of death

• Practical insight for having hard conversations with young kids about how your family is hurting

• Encouragement that your suffering can be an invaluable gift to the people in your life

• Why you shouldn’t wait for easy times to start making memories with the people you love

If you need some honest but hopeful company in your misery, this episode is for you.

Show Notes:

Ashley Monogue Photography

Integrus

Hope Heals Camp

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Ecclesiastes 7:2

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up here for the Hope Note⁠⁠, our monthly digest of only the good stuff, like reflections from Katherine and a curated digest of the Internet’s most redemptive content,

Get to know us:

⁠⁠Hope Heals⁠⁠

⁠⁠Hope Heals Camp⁠⁠

⁠⁠Mend Coffee⁠⁠

Instagram⁠

I’ve been healed in so many ways by learning to tell my story. But there’s some work that needs to happen before we can tell our stories. That work starts with our emotions.

The stories of your life and mine are hidden beneath our emotions. When we understand the emotions, we understand the story. And, as I said, understanding our own stories is totally crucial to healing and wholeness. (Why do you think I tell my story for a living?!)

This conversation with Adam Young is a bucket list item for me. Adam is a brilliant trauma therapist who specializes in supporting people in understanding the story of their lives. The harm, the heartache, and the miraculous joy to be found in the midst of all the hurt. His work has been transformative for me.

Friend, you cannot miss this conversation because God might just use Adam’s wisdom to transform you too.

If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:

• Why the past might still feel present to you

• How we know negative emotions belong in the “Christian plot”

• Why your biggest trauma isn’t the only story that matters in your life

• How to stop minimizing your experience of hurt so you can move toward healing

• How to gather a community that can bear witness to your hurt and healing 

If you’re searching for an empathetic guide to emotional health, this episode is for you.

Show Notes:

The Place We Find Ourselves Podcast

Bessel van der Kolk - https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/

Ep. 16 Why Lament (Surprisingly) Leads to Life and Freedom

Dan Allender

Curt Thompson

GoodHard Story Podcast Episode 68 with Debra Fileta

Confessional communities

Treasures in the Dark

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

• Job 9 and 10

• John 11:35

• Jeremiah 6 and 8

• Habakkuk 3:17-18

• Genesis 50:20

• Psalm 119:32

• Romans 12:15

***

There's so much more to the story: Click here⁠⁠ for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!

Follow me in Instagram: ⁠⁠@hopeheals⁠⁠

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

⁠Spotify⁠

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up for the Hope Note⁠⁠, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.

God is giving you and me permission to feel our feelings. But are we giving permission to ourselves?

I’m on a quest to engage my emotions with health and wholeheartedness, and Jennie Allen joined me on a leg of the journey. Jennie is a friend of mine who happens to have written the book on understanding and expressing our feelings as God intended us to.

My conversation with Jennie is as heartfelt as it is practically applicable to your life. Her generous wisdom will leave you equipped to understand what you’re feeling, put those emotions in their proper place, and then use those feelings as positive points of connection with God and other people.

If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:

• Step-by-step instructions for engaging your emotions in healthy ways

• Reconciling the reality of your fallen-ness with the validity of your feelings

• Encouragement to stop fixing and start feeling for your hurting friends

• A prayer from Jennie FOR you

If your emotions leave you feeling like too much or too little—or, somehow, BOTH—this episode is for you. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at hopeheals.com/podcast.

Show Notes:

@jennieallen on Instagram

Jennie's website

IF:Gathering

Gather25

Untangle Your Emotions

Hope Heals Camp

Confessional Communities

Get Out of Your Head

Dan Allender

Adam Young

GoodHard Story Podcast Episode 68 with Debra Fileta

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

• Ecclesiastes 3:4

• Hebrews 4:15

• Ecclesiastes 7:2

• John 16:33

• John 11:35

• Ephesians 4:26-27

• Jeremiah 17:9

***

There's so much more to the story:⁠ ⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠ for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!

Follow me in Instagram:⁠ ⁠⁠@hopeheals⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠

⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up for the Hope Note⁠⁠, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. ⁠Subscribe here.⁠

“I’m a Christian because of the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept.”

Something I didn’t wake up to until after my stroke is the fact that joy and sadness can co-exist. In fact, they can do it pretty beautifully if we allow them to.

My friend Scott knows how to be sad. That may sound like a backhanded compliment, but hear me out. I think learning to fully engage our sorrow is one of the healthiest rhythms we can find, especially as followers of Jesus. He was, after all, called the “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” So how do we befriend our sadness in the way of Christ?

That’s what I’m covering on this week’s episode of The GoodHard Story Podcast, with the help of Scott Erickson. An artist, writer, and one of the most intriguing thinkers I’ve ever known, Scott has found deep camaraderie with Jesus through his sadness. And he’s inviting you and me to do the same.

If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:

• Releasing yourself from being a constant sales pitch for Jesus

• Making the shift from getting God’s attention to awakening to where God is at work

• What we mean when we talk about hope

• A peek into Katherine’s new SOS group

• Scott’s hack for facing his fears

Want to invite God into your sadness, but don’t know where to start? This episode is for you.

Show Notes:

@scottthepainter on Instagram

Scott’s Substack Image Pilgrimage

Scott’s story of meeting Sadness at Disneyland

Inside Out

Hope Heals Camp

Justin McRoberts

Honest Advent

Art Against Despair

The GoodHard Story Podcast Episode 76 with Andy Squyres

Backwards Kingdom

Treasures in the Dark Entry 65: A Library of Living Survival Guides

Telling Secrets by Frederick Buechner

Dan Allender

Curt Thompson

Say Yes

Future Dead Artist mug

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

• John 11:35
• Isaiah 53:3
• Romans 5:3
• 1 Peter 5:10
• Psalm 139:7-10

***

There's so much more to the story: ⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠ for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!

Follow me in Instagram: ⁠⁠@hopeheals⁠⁠

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

⁠Spotify⁠

Want a little hope in your inbox? Sign up for the Hope Note⁠⁠, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.

Did you know that scholars have identified 39 distinct emotions that Jesus felt recorded in the Bible? Is anyone else as encouraged by this as I am?! Our emotions can be a pathway to wholeness and healing if we know what to do with them. 

This is just one of MANY gems of wisdom waiting for you on The GoodHard Story Podcast. While guest Debra Fileta is not *technically* my therapist, this episode was so cathartic it might as well have been a paid session!

Debra is an author and licensed professional counselor who is using her life to study the emotional health of Jesus and sharing how we can access that health for ourselves. I left our conversation with a deeper understanding of my own feelings and some simple practices for taking ownership of my emotions.

If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:

• A simple formula for intentional healing

• Identifying the belief systems underneath our feelings

• Why we project our pain onto God

• Differentiating between the voice of God and anxiety

• How to prevent emotional explosions

• Taking control of our thought patterns

• The difference between self care and soul care

Desperate to experience emotions in the way God intended? This episode is for you

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at hopeheals.com/podcast.

Show Notes

All things Debra Fileta!

Debra's website

Instagram

Talk to Me Podcast

Soul Care by Debra Fileta

Reset by Debra Fileta

Treasures in the Dark by Katherine Wolf

Katherine on Debra’s Podcast

What’s Here Now? by Jeanne Stevens

I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet by Shauna Niequest

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Romans 12:2

John 10:10

John 2:1

Matthew 13:1

***

There's so much more to the story: Click here⁠⁠ for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!

Follow me in Instagram: ⁠⁠@hopeheals⁠⁠

Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

⁠Spotify⁠

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up for the Hope Note⁠⁠, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.