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MFP 320: Super Habits for the Family

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

Release Date: 02/10/2025

MFP 331: Let’s Talk About Husbands! Listener questions answered show art MFP 331: Let’s Talk About Husbands! Listener questions answered

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

“If we accept that God’s love is unconditional, that the Father’s love cannot be bought or sold, then we will become capable of showing boundless love and forgiving others even if they have wronged us” - Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia Summary:  Becoming a husband and father is the biggest change a man goes through in his life.  There is simply no better “life-coaching” than family life!  But when men find their vocation difficult, it is usually their wives that they turn to or who observe this difficulty and have a desire to help.  In this podcast, we hear from...

info_outline MFP 330: What Will Your Children Remember? show art MFP 330: What Will Your Children Remember?

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

“You’re not just parenting your children… you are parenting your grandchildren”   Summary Have you ever walked through a thousand-year-old castle or along a wall built by Romans nearly a millennium ago? On a recent trip to the UK, we were struck by the longevity of these structures—and the intentionality behind them. They weren’t built to last a season, but centuries. In this episode, we challenge you to think the same way about your family culture. Are you parenting just for today… or are you building something that will bless your children, grandchildren, and...

info_outline MFP 329: Who is “God the Father”? show art MFP 329: Who is “God the Father”?

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

“Unleashing the heart of the Father is a power the world does not know.”   Summary God wants us to know Him as a father.  We as parents are to prepare the hearts of our children to know the father by acting like him.  So when our children wonder what God is like, we should be able to say to them, “God loves you as I love you, but so much better”.  For us to do that, we need to know what God is like, so we can act as him.  In this podcast we break open the Word of God to share with you how God describes Himself in the Bible and how we can come to know Him better...

info_outline MFP 328: Let Your Life Be a Witness, An interview with Chris and Molly McMahon show art MFP 328: Let Your Life Be a Witness, An interview with Chris and Molly McMahon

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

"Never be embarrassed to love your wife." – Chris McMahon​   Summary What does it take to build a thriving business and a strong marriage at the same time? In this episode, Mike sits down with longtime friends Chris and Molly McMahon—financial advisors, founders, parents of five, and marriage warriors. Together, they unpack the real story behind balancing ambition with family, building a faith-filled home without a perfect blueprint, and making decisions that prioritize your marriage even when the world says otherwise. From the mess of early parenthood and maxed-out credit cards to...

info_outline MFP 327: Five Steps to Give You More Time show art MFP 327: Five Steps to Give You More Time

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

The only way to not live constantly in the Urgent is to manage those things that are Important.   Summary “How are  you?” “BUSY!” Isn't that the response so many of us give when asked this question?  How did we all get so busy and how do we get off the crazy train?  Parents have as much time as anyone else (even though it doesn’t feel like it!) but they need to be more conscious than anyone else regarding how they spend the precious time they have.  In this podcast, we give five steps that parents can use right now to use their time wisely.  Using the...

info_outline MFP 326: The Art of Raising Humans show art MFP 326: The Art of Raising Humans

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

"God gives us our children to heal and transform us." - Kyle Wester   Summary In many ways, being a parent is less about our kids and more about our own formation!  When we lean into the vocation of parenthood, God can use every experience with our children to show us His love and to form us into the person He has created us to be.  In this podcast, we talk to Kyle and Sara Wester, counselors and hosts of the podcast The Art of Raising Humans. During our conversation, they explained four different parenting styles that we move in and out of depending on our life circumstances,...

info_outline MFP 325: Let’s Get Intimate… show art MFP 325: Let’s Get Intimate…

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

“Lovemaking puts flesh on the vows that we exchange in marriage” - Byron and Francine Pirola   Summary A few years ago in Australia, we met an amazing couple who we immediately wanted to share with our listeners.  Byron and Francine Piroloa from Smart Loving, are on a mission to make marriages stronger all over the world and they are willing to talk about that subject that few couples will tackle - physical intimacy.  We aired this podcast five years ago and it got such a great response that we decided to put it up again for all of you.  Listen in as we talk to the...

info_outline MFP 324: Moving from Isolation to Unity show art MFP 324: Moving from Isolation to Unity

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  Genesis 2:24   Summary Unity between man and woman was God’s original plan, but the Fall not only broke our relationship with God, it also broke our relationship with each other.  But the good news is that Jesus has given us grace in the sacrament of Matrimony so we can have a oneness in marriage that would be impossible otherwise!  With unity, couples can handle anything life dishes out. Without it, even the easy things will seem hard. Couples need to...

info_outline MFP 323: Desires, Vices, and Holiness for Parents show art MFP 323: Desires, Vices, and Holiness for Parents

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

Vices are our disordered way of fulfilling our God-given good desires.    Summary So many of us thought we were good people till we had kids, right?  This is because kids expose our weaknesses and we need to be aware of them in order to overcome them.  Listen in as we reveal Satan’s plan for you and lay out God’s great plan of using our rightly ordered desires to develop virtues and live according to His plan.   The desires that God has put in our hearts for dignity, communion, justice, and peace are all good, but when we try to fulfill them on our own, they...

info_outline MFP 322: Dealing with Mouthy Teens show art MFP 322: Dealing with Mouthy Teens

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

A problem with disrespect from a child always goes back to a dysfunction in the parent-child relationship.   Summary When our sweet children enter the teen years and adolescence is upon them, something happens that tends to cause parents stress and dismay - back talk and disrespect.  Some of this is immaturity on the part of the child and some is simply lack of training in relationships.  It is our job as parents to teach our children how to express their feelings, disagree, and even debate while maintaining an attitude of respect towards us and therefore, other people in their...

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Summary

Have you ever wanted to stop yelling at your kids?  Be more courteous to your spouse?  Or be more orderly at home?  Enter Super Habits!  These are not just new things for you to learn to do, these are life-changing actions that will make you happier, healthier and more successful in many areas.  In this interview, we spoke to Dr. Andrew Abela, author of the book Super Habits and his wife Kathleen who explained to us how to apply this book to family life.  They gave us some great insights and showed us how Super Habits can be the answer to what we all need in our parenting and marriages.  And the best part is that these habits are already present in us, we just need to activate them.  Listen in! 

 

Key Takeaways

  • Every virtue is a habit anyone can cultivate, not just a characteristic or personality trait.  We can all grow and change. 

  • All new habits create new neurological pathways in our brains, but the advantage of Super Habits is that these are pathways that are native to us already, we already have the “muscles”; we just need to use them. 

  • Super habits do three things - they make us happier, healthier, and they have a positive effect on multiple areas of our lives.   

  • St. Thomas Aquinas has the best system of organizing the virtues! We all need fluency in the language of virtues. 

  • All growth in Super Habits is slow and steady so keep going! 

  • Virtue happens when we channel our desires correctly - not squash them. 

  • Growth in Super Habits is the answer to “helicopter” or “bulldozer” parenting 

  • We need to be aware of the full range of virtues for the full flourishing of the human person. 

 

Couple Discussion Questions

  • In what ways have we already developed some Super Habits?  How did we do that? 

  • What Super Habit will help us in our parenting?  How can we support each other in cultivating it?  



Resources

Beloved Event - arrayofhope.regfox.com/beloved