Episodes
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Knowing information, even information about God, is important. But so many Christians find information woefully inadequate to fully address the realities of their lives. Our souls long for something more - something of beauty, connection, even love.
In this unique and beautiful conversation Dr. Carol talks with Quina Aragon, author, editor, and spoken word artist, about the love of God - not in the sense of information, but from story - our story, the Bible's story, and God's story. And you'll especially enjoy the poetic reading near the end of this episode.
Connect with Quina Aragon on her website, or on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
Find Quina's book Love Has a Story: 100 Meditations on the Enduring Love of GodWould love to have you join us at our Change(d) Conference 2024: Lasting Transformation Around Intimacy, Sexuality, and Relationships. Learn more and register here.
Check out Dr. Carol's article Genesis to Revelation: The Greatest Love Story Ever
Dr. Carol loves to hear from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
The US Surgeon General has highlighted the epidemic of loneliness in our culture, and the very negative health implications. Just being around people is helpful but inadequate to satisfy the deep longing for connection God built into every human heart.
In this practical episode Dr. Carol talks with Becky Harling, speaker, podcaster, Bible teacher, and author, about the deeper connections our hearts truly need, and what you can do to proactively nurture those connections. Though it may feel challenging, every one of us can take the initiative to find your people, and you'll be healthier and happier for it.
Connect with Becky Harling on her website, Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram
Find Becky's latest book Cultivating Deeper Connections in a Lonely WorldWould love to have you join us at our Change(d) Conference 2024: Lasting Transformation Around Intimacy, Sexuality, and Relationships. Learn more and register here.
Check out Dr. Carol's article How to Find Your People
Dr. Carol loves to hear from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
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The wounds we all experience in life - internally as well as externally - can leave you with permanent scars. As a result you may feel disqualified from experiencing true goodness, from being able to fulfill what you most deeply desire, or from being as useful to God's kingdom as you wish.
Dr. Michelle Bengston, speaker, author, and board-certified clinical neuropsychologist, has experienced lots of scars and helped countless others face their own scars. She talks with Dr. Carol on this episode about how our scars - physical and emotional - serve as the very preparation for what God wants to do both in and through you. Your scars are sacred.
Connect with Dr. Bengston on her website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Find Dr. Michelle Bengston's books:
- The Hem of His Garment: Reaching Out to God When Pain Overwhelms
- Sacred Scars: Resting in God's Promise That Your Past Is Not Wasted
Check out my book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
Dr. Carol receives lots of questions about relationships, menopause and married sex, marital rape, struggle with pornography, and more. In today's episode she answers some listener submitted questions on a range of subjects. You won't want to miss this!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Navigating Midlife online course
- Article Having the Sex Talk With Your Spouse
- eBook Dr. Carol's Guide to Sex and Menopause
- Article Why You Are Not Entitled to Sex
- Article Where to Start if Your Marriage Lacks Intimacy
- Free download A Prescription for Sexual Healing – God's Way
- Article Why Doesn't God Deliver Me From This Addiction
- Article How God Deals With Repeat Sinners
- Resource Page Relationships Help
- Article The Most Powerful Prayer I Ever Prayed
Check out my book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
Many followers of Jesus might wish God would "zap" them out of their addiction to porn, alcohol, or whatever else. Are they uniquely flawed when they still struggle with their unwanted behavior patterns? Doesn't being "a new creation in Christ" mean things should be resolved?
Troy and Melissa Haas are licensed counselors and lead the HopeQuest family of ministries. They join Dr. Carol on this episode to talk about their own story of painful addiction and betrayal trauma, and about how they are now helping so many individuals and families find not just sobriety but lasting and whole recovery.
Find out more about HopeQuest on their website, Facebook, X(Twitter), or Instagram.
Check out Dr. Carol's article Why Doesn't God Deliver Me From This Addiction?
Check out my book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and RelationshipsDr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here.
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Even as followers of Jesus, stuff happens to us. And more than that, stuff happens within us as a result. Your personal dashboard may start showing yellow lights or even flashing red lights, indicating things are not well. It's time to pay attention.
In this very personal and practical episode, experienced counselor, author, pastor, and professor Chuck DeGroat rejoins Dr. Carol to talk about how to address those warning lights, find healing for what's going on inside, and reconnect with oneself, others, and God.
Connect with Chuck DeGroat on his website, Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Find Chuck's book Healing What’s Within: Coming Home to Yourself—and to God—When You're Wounded, Weary, and Wandering
Check out my previous conversation with Chuck DeGroat - How to Deal With a Narcissist
Dr. Carol loves to hear from you. You can leave her a confidential message here. -
The divorce rate for blended families is 70%. But there's another surprising statistic; well over 99% of couples who do this one specific activity stay together - blended or not.
Dr. Carol talks with Scott and Vanessa Martindale of Blended Kingdom Families in this very encouraging episode. Scott shares the one activity that guarantees an over 99% success rate for you staying together! We talk about the unique challenges blended families face, but even more about the doable ways of building oneness even when your marriage is blended.
Check out the organization Scott and Vanessa Martindale lead, Blended Kingdom Families, or also on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
Check out the Martindale's book Blended and Redeemed: The Go-To Field Guide for the Modern Stepfamily
Consider attending the Blended Family Conference coming October 5 - in person or virtually
Explore the resources on Dr. Carol Ministries Relationships page
Dr. Carol loves to hear from you. You can leave a confidential message here.
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What kind of change is possible - or not possible, especially when it comes to LGBTQ issues? And how does change happen? There are no one-size-fits-all answers. But as the Changed movement is demonstrating, there are more stories of lasting change than many realize.
Dr. Carol's guest on this episode is Ken Williams, co-founder of the Changed Movement. He shares his story of following Jesus away from a gay identity to what he describes as a true masculine identity and intimacy with God – and also being happily married to his wife. And Ken and Dr. Carol dive deep into what change means, and how it happens.
Connect with Ken Williams on his website, the Changed Movement, Navigating LGBTQ, or on Facebook
Find Ken's book The Journey Out: How I Followed Jesus Away from Gay
Check out my book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
At some point in life, you'll likely to face a time when everything seems to be falling apart. A job loss, health or financial crisis, end of a marriage, death of a close loved one, or other catastrophe that can leave you feeling overwhelmed, confused, and unsure whether or how you can go on living.
Dr. Carol's guest on this episode, author, Bible teacher, and minister Dawn Mann Sanders brings her own personal experience and a deep exploration of God's creative process to this encouraging conversation. You'll learn how to partner with God in overcoming adversity and recreating a new life of goodness and meaning after everything seems lost.
Connect with Dawn Mann Sanders on her website, Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram
Find Dawn's book When Your World Ends: God's Creative Process for Rebuilding a Life
If you have recently experienced the death of a loved one, you will appreciate Dr. Carol's free 30-day email devotional series The Christian's Journey Through Grief, or her book by the same name.
Dr. Carol loves to hear from you; you can leave her a confidential message here. -
Statistics show that divorce rates are at their highest between five and eight years of marriage. That's when the disillusionment sets in. Even if your marriage is not destructively toxic, what happened to the "happily ever after" that you thought you were embarking on? And what can you do about it?
Dr. Carol's guest on this episode, Chelsea Damon, thought marriage would make her happy - until it didn't. But since she and her husband have learned these important keys, she says her marriage is now consistently more happy than ever. Find out what she has coached thousands of couples to walk through in making their marriage enduringly happy.
Connect with Chelsea Damon on her website, Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram
Find Chelsea's book I Thought This Would Make Me Happy: How to Fight Less, Forgive Faster, and Cultivate Joy in Your Marriage
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
The Bible doesn't talk specifically about dating. But that doesn't mean it has nothing to say on the subject. Dating as a Christian can seem confusing, and hard. There are questions not only about sexuality and sexual behavior, but about how to know if this is "the one," what makes a relationship healthy, and preparing for not just a wedding but a marriage.
Tovares and Safa Gray talk with Dr. Carol in this authentic and fun conversation about Godly Dating 101 - their ministry to young Christians helping them navigate all the challenging questions and experiences they are faced with in developing a healthy relationship God's way.
Connect with Tovares and Safa Gray on their website, YouTube channel, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Find their book Godly Dating 101: Discover the Truth About Relationships in a World That Constantly Lies
Get your free download from Dr. Carol Your Prescription for Sexual Healing – God's Way
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
The rapid increase in LGBTQ+ issues in our culture leaves many Christian parents struggling with how to navigate these realities with their children in ways that are both loving and aligned to their Christian faith.
Dr. Carol's guest on today's episode is Ellen Radcliff. She was raised in a Christian home and also wrestles with same-sex attraction. As a faithful Christian wife and mother who holds to a Biblical sexual ethic, she now works with other parents and families navigating these challenging waters. From both her own experience and her theological training she can help you maintain connection both with God and with your children.
Connect with Ellen Radcliff on her website, Facebook, or Instagram.
Find Ellen's book Love Covers Over: A Guide for Christian Parents Raising Kids in an LGBTQ+ World
Get your free download from Dr. Carol Your Prescription for Sexual Healing – God's Way
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
Christian women, young and old, often struggle with a disconnect between what their intellect may know is "right" about sexuality, God, and relationships, and what their own experience has been. Pornography or other ungodly sexual behaviors only add to their sexual shame and feeling of being stuck.
On this episode Dr. Carol talks with Dr. Joy Skarka, director of discipleship for Authentic Intimacy, about the journey God invites every woman into of discovering the full love of God, how to grow into freedom from sexual shame regardless of your story, and the experience of true intimacy as God originally intended.
Connect with Joy Skarka on her website, Facebook, X, or Instagram.
Find Joy's book Her Freedom Journey: A Guide Out of Porn and Shame to Authentic Intimacy
Get your free download from Dr. Carol: Your Prescription for Sexual Healing – God's Way
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
We all get wounded. What do you do with your wounds? As humans we naturally hide the parts of us we deem least presentable. And that very hiding is what prevents the deep healing and transformation Jesus longs to bring.
In this moving and personal episode, author, pastor, and ministry director Russell Joyce talks with Dr. Carol about how Jesus finds us in our wounds. His own shame and physical pain he's lived with as a result of being born with Goldenhar syndrome becomes that metaphor for how God meets us most transformatively in the very places we find most challenging.
Connect with Russell Joyce on his website, Instagram, or YouTube.
Find Russell's book His Face Like Mine: Finding God’s Love in Our Wounds
Get your free download Your Prescription for Sexual Healing – God's Way
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
Our culture seems obsessed with sex. Then why do so many men seem to experience sexual desire as a place of brokenness, shame, struggle, and confusion? Dr. Carol's guest on this episode asserts that men are oversexualized yet sexually undernourished, and that many men need more talk, not less, about sexuality.
Experienced therapist and author Sam Jolman joins Dr. Carol to talk about masculine sexuality as God designed it to be, how evil has hijacked and distorted this critical part of a man's soul, and what the journey to sexual wholeness, wonder, freedom, and even innocence is all about.
Connect with Sam Jolman on his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube.
Find Sam's book The Sex Talk You Never Got: Reclaiming the Heart of Masculine Sexuality
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
And get the Audiobook of Sexpectations at 60% off through August 9th.
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
While approximately 50% of those who call themselves Christian in the developed world are unmarried, only about 25% of the typical church attendees are unmarried. Where are the other single Christians? Many unmarried Christians report unique struggles in their walk with God. They often report feeling disconnected or even alienated from the body of Christ, like church isn't for them.
On this episode Lisa Anderson, who manages Focus on the Family's young adult ministry, talks with Dr. Carol about what it's like to live as a Christian single - at any age. And Lisa has some helpful things to say to singles about the church, and to the church about singles.
Connect with Lisa Anderson on the Boundless website, or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram
Get Lisa's book The Dating Manifesto: A Drama-Free Plan for Pursuing Marriage with Purpose
Find my article Handling Your Sexuality as a Single Christian
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
The need to belong is deep in our human souls. We are almost always asking, "Am I on the inside? Or on the outside?" Loneliness has strong negative impacts on our physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.
Dr. Carol's conversation with writer, speaker, and podcaster Sarah E. Westfall will help you navigate your need to belong, and how that comes more from who you are than something you achieve. And they offer insight into how to move closer to both God and others.
More resources:
- Connect with Sarah Westfall on her website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
- Get Sarah's book The Way of Belonging: Reimagining Who We Are and How We Relate
My article How to Find Your People When You Need Help
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here.
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More religious stuff to do. So much performance leads to anxiety and exhaustion. When our attachment to God is insecure, or is based on our own activity and behavior, there's no life.
Anglican priest and spiritual director Summer Joy Gross has walked the journey to become securely attached to God. She talks with Dr. Carol on this episode about how you can do the same. While offering practices that will help you, your biggest takeaway from this conversation is likely to be a deeper desire to be with Jesus.
More resources:
- Connect with Summer Joy Gross and the Presence Project on her website, or on Facebook or Instagram.
- Get Summer's book The Emmanuel Promise: Discovering the Security of a Life Held by GodCheck out my article Practical Ways to Pursue Intimacy with God
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
Marriage is hard. And it can be really hard when you face betrayal, neurodiversity, old baggage, emotional deprivation, and more.
Shawna Meek has faced all this, and has chosen to stay married. She talks with Dr. Carol about what helped her stay - and stay sane - in the middle of all the mess. You may or may not make the same choice Shawna has. But regardless, this conversation will help you feel validated and encouraged, and help you persevere regardless of what happens - or doesn't - with your marriage.
More resources:
- APSATS - Association of Partners of Sex Addicts Trauma Specialists
- Find Shawna Meek at Living Stones Coaching, Facebook, or Instagram
- Get Shawna's book Determined for More: A Story of Perseverance Through Divorce, Betrayal Trauma, Emotional Deprivation and Autism
My book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. -
Your journey to wholeness - sexually and otherwise - will be opposed. That opposition comes from both inside you and from outside you. That opposition includes pressure from the kingdom of darkness. Not everything is spiritual warfare, but understanding this aspect of what you will face helps you be prepared and successful in facing the opposition.
Dr. Carol provides three specific strategies or things to do in facing spiritual opposition that will help you recognize when you're under spiritual attack, experience true freedom, and build a lifestyle that will maintain your freedom.
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More resources:
- article The Most Powerful Prayer I Ever Prayed
- book and related resources: Sexpectations: Reframing Your Good and Not-So-Good Stories Around God, Love, and Relationships
Dr. Carol enjoys hearing from you. You can leave a confidential message here. - Show more
