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Ep. 125: Underestimated: From a Single-Wide Trailer in W. Va. to Yale Law School with Mary Marantz

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

Release Date: 04/21/2025

Ep. 132: How Death, Debt and Comedy Led to a Life of Faith with Molly Stillman- Summer Throwback

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

Molly Stillman has lived the type of life that when shared, people stop in their tracks and ask, “Wait, what happened?” Molly’s mother, Lynda Van Devanter Buckley served as an Army nurse during the Vietnam War and wrote the bestselling memoir, Home Before Morning. When Molly was seventeen, Lynda passed away after an eight-year battle with an autoimmune disorder due to her exposure to Agent Orange. Four years later, Molly turned twenty-one and unexpectedly inherited a quarter of a million dollars from her mother’s estranged family’s estate. Through “retail therapy” and a...

Ep. 131: Breaking Free from Shame: Pregnant at 15, Redeemed by Faith with Christy Braddock

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

Christy Braddock has struggled with shame from a teen pregnancy and years later, abortion. The guilt became a heavy weight to carry. Christy got pregnant at 15 and gave her baby up for adoption. Then at 21 she became pregnant again, but this time she decided to keep the baby and get married, thinking this was her second chance to raise a child. But because her marriage was so dysfunctional she made some poor choices, including abortion, that she’s had to overcome with Jesus’ grace and forgiveness. Today, Christy’s passion is helping women to break free from shame and boldly share their...

Ep. 130: Lessons Learned and Victories Won Through Our Son's Struggle with ADD with Carol Roper

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

As we’ve entered the last week of May, I remember how crazy this time of year is for those who have school-aged children. I know a lot of parents are in what many call Maycember. The chaotic final days of the school year entail so many parties, ceremonies, graduations, proms, concerts, teacher appreciation gifts and sports tournaments. It can also bring lots of anticipation, with kids looking forward to summer break and wondering what teacher they’ll have next year. For me, however, I’m often reminded of a difficult memory that occurred over 20 years ago at the conclusion of my...

Ep. 129: Do You Know How to Gracefully Defend Your Faith? with Liz Cobo

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

Liz Cobo says that nothing has deepened her faith and changed her walk with Jesus like studying the Bible. Studying God's Word literally changed her life. Things that were once important priorities aren’t anymore. Things that were once afterthoughts are now at the top of her list. Scripture is God's self-revelation and is available to anyone willing to take the time and make the effort to read and study. Liz understands that now. God promises in his Word that he will give us greater understanding of His Word when we read it. Liz always believed in God, but didn’t always know...

Ep. 128: Are You Harboring Bitterness Toward Your Messy Family? with Carol Roper

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

I don’t know about you, but in my home the laundry room is considered one of the most important rooms. It’s command central. When my kids were still at home it was also a disaster on most days. Oh, it might be clean for a few brief hours, but then when everyone started slinging off boots and muddy clothes, you’d never know I’d darkened the door that day. Many days the frustration of laundry, picking up clothes, blankets, cups and shoes (the list could go on infinitely) is overwhelming, especially with kids in the home. Before my children flew the nest, I’d get mad and start to...

Ep. 127: Are You Weary? A Musical Duo's Story of Hope Through Life's Storms with Kenny and Claire Hilliard

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

Husband-and-wife music duo, Kenny and Claire Hilliard both grew up in the upstate of South Carolina before God took them the long way around to finally settle in Nashville, TN. In 2015, during Kenny’s tenure as a senior pastor and worship leader in Asheville, North Carolina, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Shortly after successful surgery to remove the tumor, Kenny received a second diagnosis, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome—a degenerative genetic disease that left him temporarily impaired. The couple embraced a return to music during Kenny’s recovery, founding a music teaching studio...

Ep. 126: Is It Really That Bad for Christians to Cuss? with Carol Roper

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

When my kids were teens, I shared with both of them that I used to curse—a lot. You should have seen the expressions on their faces as their jaws dropped, and eyes grew wide with disbelief. “Not you Mom! I don’t believe it!” I was pleased that I had to convince them otherwise, glad that I’d decided when they were both very little that my speech needed to change. That, and the Holy Spirit got ahold of me. When I was thinking about this week’s kitchen table topic, I was surprised by some of the pushback I received. I had no idea that cursing for Christians was a...

Ep. 125: Underestimated: From a Single-Wide Trailer in W. Va. to Yale Law School with Mary Marantz

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

Ep. 124 From Lonely to Loved: A Blueprint to Building Lasting Friendships

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

When I started this podcast, my two best friends, Frieda Younts and Julie Bagwell, graciously agreed to be my first interview. We wanted to help other women find and experience friendship like ours, because good, godly friends can have an amazing impact on your life, as we all can testify. One of the things Frieda said during that interview describes the foundation of our friendship. She said, “We started with [honoring God in our get-togethers]. When we started with that, God knit us together. That’s why we don’t have huge arguments because we’re knit together by God. He started...

Ep. 123 Hope and Humor After Divorce: Thriving as a Single Mom in Christian Comedy with Kerri Pomarolli

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

Christian comedian Kerri Pomarolli knows what's it like to feel hopeless. After she and her comedian husband divorced, she didn’t think anyone would want to hire her for Christian events again, so she holed up in her bedroom and hid under the covers, binge-watching all five seasons of Friday Night Lights, drinking coke and eating a balanced diet of M&M’s and salt and vinegar potato chips. Becoming a member of the Single Moms’ Club wasn’t exactly on her bucket list, but God revealed a plan for her to reach a whole new group of people. That was the motivation for her to get out of...

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Mary Marantz knows how fear can hold us back. Even though she was able to leave the musty single-wide trailer of her childhood in West Virginia and make her way to Yale Law School, she always carried the fear that she would be found out. Even though she had worked hard and earned every grade and scholarship she received she thought others saw her as an imposter. So, she strove to be the best at everything she did, and she was. But the life of perfection has a way of draining the joy out of you. Mary finally realized that fear was holding her hostage to a life that didn’t provide freedom and that he is a boring liar. In this episode she shares part of her fascinating story of growing up in rural West Virginia, which is the topic of her first book, Dirt, with a dad who was a proud eighth generation logger, a mom who cleaned houses and her amazing grandma Goldie. In her newest book, Underestimated, she shares how she overcame perfectionism, procrastination, people-pleasing and more. She understands the drive to prove others wrong and show everyone just how far you’ve come, while also doubting yourself at every turn. Mary has learned that we all must own the muddy parts of our stories so we can move forward in the purpose God has for us. Because, as Mary says, God does His best work in the muddy, messy, and broken if we’ll only learn to dig in.

Go to Carolroper.org for show notes

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