Ep. 101: Breaking the Cycle: Transforming Anger into Love in Parenting with Jennifer Sakata
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Release Date: 05/14/2024
Ep. 151: Celebrating 5 Incredible Years: Your Favorite Christmas Traditions, Young Mom Insights and Our Top 10 Episodes
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
We’re celebrating five amazing years of incredible testimonies and conversations! In this special anniversary episode, we’re sharing your favorite Christmas traditions, chatting with two inspiring young moms, Carli McNamara and Rebecca Edwards, about holiday memories and motherhood, and revealing the top 10 most-loved episodes of the podcast. Plus, I’ll share how many countries the podcast has reached and the surprising number country where we’re downloaded the most outside of the United States. We also announce the first and second place winners of our celebration giveaway! Whether...
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Ep. 150: Hope Beyond Heartache: The Journey to an Untroubled Heart with Kara Stout
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Heartache is something we all face—whether through loss, disappointment, or unexpected challenges. Today’s guest, Kara Stout—author of An Untroubled Heart—opens up about her personal journey through grief, waiting seasons, and life’s unexpected challenges. Drawing from her experiences of loss and her own medical crises, Kara shares how faith became her anchor when peace felt out of reach. Her message is clear: even in the darkest valleys, God’s presence offers comfort, strength, and hope. Her story reminds us that hope is not the absence of heartache but the assurance of God’s...
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Ep. 149: Unlocking Joy: The Surprising Power of Letting Go with Carol Roper
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Have you ever struggled with unforgiveness? If we’re honest I believe we all have. But that’s not how God wants us to live. Even though He commands us to forgive, it’s not just to let the other person off the hook. He wants us to forgive because He knows how holding onto resentment can cause a cancer to grow in our hearts, hurting us so much more than the person who caused the hurt. In this episode I’ll share several instances where God convicted me of my unforgiving heart as well as a parable where Jesus shows us how ungrateful we are when we don’t forgive. Watch on YouTube ...
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Ep. 148: Can Love Really Change a Broken World? How God's Love Transforms Hearts-Starting with Ours with Rachael Adams
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
What if the way you love could change the world—starting in your own home? In a culture that feels fractured and hostile, loving others like Jesus isn’t just hard—it feels impossible. But what if God gave us a blueprint for loving without limits? Author and podcaster, Rachael Adams has recently released her second book, Everyday Prayers for Love: Learning to Love God, Others and Even Yourself. We are often told the Bible is God’s love letter to us, yet we struggle to comprehend the height, width, and depth that this eternal God has for His beloved. How would fully understanding...
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Ep. 147: Have You Lost Hope? Building Your Faith in a Season of Despair with Carol Roper
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
We all walk through seasons that feel like a desert—lonely, exhausting, and full of questions for God. In this episode, I open up about my own painful wilderness years—struggling with infertility, chronic illness, and depression—and how I eventually discovered that God hadn’t abandoned me after all. Through my story, you’ll see that the desert isn’t a place of punishment but preparation. It’s where God strips away our dependence on everything else so we can truly know Him as our provider. If you’ve ever wondered where God is when life feels dry, this episode will remind you...
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Ep. 146: When Feelings Fade: Finding Hope for Your Marriage Through Everyday Moments with Dan & Danielle Macaulay
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Every marriage goes through seasons—some filled with laughter and connection, and others that feel dry, distant, or lonely. Maybe you’ve found yourself wondering, “What happened to us? Why can’t we enjoy doing things together like we used to?” The feelings you once had faded, and no matter how hard you try, it feels like you’re just going through the motions. If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. Dan and Danielle Macaulay, founders of MarriedUp.net and authors of The Triangle Effect, talk about what to do when love feels more like effort than emotion—and how inviting...
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Ep. 145: What Are You Missing Because You’re Afraid to Trust God?
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
What dream have you had that you feel is too big to pursue? One of my big dreams has always been to go to England, the country my maternal grandmother was from. But I don’t like to fly, I was worried I couldn’t do that much walking, didn’t know how to figure out all of the planes, trains, underground, taxis and Uber logistics, etc. etc. I decided not to give into those fears, however, when my husband, John, offered to take me on the trip of a lifetime to England and Scotland to celebrate my 60th birthday and our 40th wedding anniversary. Having recently returned from that trip I can...
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Ep. 144: When Motherhood Doesn't Go As Planned with Former MOPS President Elisa Morgan
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Did your motherhood story turn out the way you hoped? Even if it didn’t, God is still writing something beautiful. Motherhood is both messy and miraculous. Even the president of MOPS faced heartbreak in motherhood. When Elisa Morgan led MOPS, she encouraged millions of moms — but behind the scenes, her own motherhood journey was far from perfect. In this candid conversation, Elisa shares the struggles and blessings of parenting, how she found God’s faithfulness in the hard seasons, and why she believes mentoring younger women is one of the most powerful ways to build strong homes of...
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Ep. 143: Finding Home Wherever We Lived: My Mom's Story of Faith and Family with Christine Limoges (& Lisa Johns)
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
In this heartfelt episode I sit down with my mom and sister to share a legacy of faith, resilience, and family love. My mom’s story begins with her mom, an English war bride, who left everything familiar behind to start a new life in America. Later, mom had her own military journey after she married my dad who was stationed at first in Germany and eventually was deployed to Vietnam. Even though it was difficult, mom learned how to make anywhere feel like home. Through frequent moves, a long deployment, and so many home renovations, mom created a life centered on faith, love, and...
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Ep. 142: Breaking the Cycle of Abuse: A Story of Healing and Hope with Ruth Valor
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
What does it take to break free from a lifetime of pain and abuse? Ruth Valor’s story is a powerful Christian testimony of how God can heal even the deepest wounds. From the time she was just three years old, Ruth endured sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional neglect. Her father battled alcoholism and carried his own scars from an abusive childhood, leaving Ruth desperate for love and acceptance. That search often led her into destructive relationships—what she now calls having a “broken picker.” But God had a greater plan for Ruth. At her lowest point, she encountered Jesus...
info_outlineYou can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. This is a quote from C.S. Lewis my guest, Jennifer Sakata, shares that fits her own life story. Having grown up with an alcoholic mother and stepdad she didn't understand that her family life was dysfunctional. Not until she began to notice that her friends' families functioned much differently than her own. But when she became a teen, she and her little sister were removed from that environment. Unfortunately, the sisters were separated, each going to live with their respective grandparents. Only then did Jennifer begin to understand the difference between a house and a home.
Because of her upbringing, the habits of her own mother began to manifest in her when Jennifer had her own children, and she made a decision not to raise her boys the same way she'd been brought up. She also shares how she finally met her biological father when she was in her forties and how God brought a wonderful relationship from that. Jennifer has lived through a lot of difficulty in her life but because she intentionally decided to break the cycle from her own childhood, she transformed her anger into love. And she shares some of the practical ways she was able to do that in this episode. Y'all are truly going to enjoy hearing Jennifer's story.
Go to carolroper.org/podcast for shownotes