Self Worth | Grit and Grace Life

Your Life Can Inspire Others – 141

By This Grit & Grace Life Podcast / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | MoreEvery woman has a story. You may not think so but, whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or have all the letters behind your name, your journey can always impact someone else. We need each other. When we share life by telling our story, we’re offering our hard-earned wisdom to uplift each other. It is in these moments when our grit radiates grace. Your past struggles are precisely what another woman is going through today. It is you she can look to right now in the difficulty; it is your journey that will help her believe she can and will get to the other side, stronger. […]

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To the Woman Who Cleaned up After My Autistic Son

You Don’t Have to Make an Income to Contribute to Your Family

By Amber Koehn / Motherhood

All my life, I wanted to be a mother. It’s just something I knew, deep down, I was meant to be. I also knew that I would have to work outside the home, because if I stayed at home all day with kids, I would go crazy. To me, I didn’t think I could be fulfilled or feel important if I wasn’t working full-time. It’s kind of funny sometimes how life proves a person wrong. After my first two daughters were born, I thought I had a system all figured out. My husband ran a restaurant at the time, so he was never home. He also decided to go back to school full-time and earn his degree, so I was the one

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What Does It Mean to Be a Virtuous Woman

4 Surprising Things That Make a Virtuous Woman

By Meaghan Dawson / Faith

Working on the back end of Grit and Grace Life has lots of perks. I get to work with Darlene, who if you don’t know by now, is a fount of knowledge, wisdom, and encouragement. I get to pray with and work alongside an amazing team of women. I get to share a message I am passionate about. And, in maybe the most surprising perk of all, I get to see what you, our readers, want to read about. You want to read lots of things. It seems like you’re searching for the things that make our hearts ache. You’re searching for hope. You’re searching for peace. You’re searching for something that makes you feel less alone, for someone to write something

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I Got My First Tattoo at 45, This Is Why

By Dr. Zoe Shaw / Life & Culture

I admit to having been slightly prejudiced against people with a lot of tattoos. Why mess up God’s masterpiece? When a woman with a completely tatted body crossed my path, I often wondered, is there some self-hating going on—masochism, rebellion? My mother’s words echoed through my brain, “If God wanted you to have holes in your body or pictures on your skin, he would have given them to you.” One thing I know for sure is that the older I get, the less I know and the more I learn. Over the years, I grew to kind of like the idea of a tattoo—some symbol of defiance or exclamation point on my body, saying, “Here I am and this is what I

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Keeping Your Faith Under Pressure With Skillet’s Jen Ledger – 127

By This Grit & Grace Life Podcast / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More We’re looking to each other a lot these days, for hope, encouragement, and even advice, and we’re all experiencing life with some level of anxiety and mounting pressure. These days can challenge our faith or strengthen it, often a bit of both. Looking for inspiration, Darlene and Julie interview Jen Ledger, solo artist and drummer with the multi-platinum, world-touring rock band, Skillet. Jen shares honestly about how bouts of panic and anxiety almost kept her from pursuing her dreams and how she found the strength, grit, and grace to endure these setbacks and still accomplish her dreams. She even talks about how she has

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How I Made Beauty From Ashes and Burnt Toast

By Meaghan Dawson / HerStory, Purpose

I have been many things in my 40 years. I’ve tried on many different hats. I have been a fashion-forward retail worker in New York City and an avid runner who defined herself by her race times and lap splits. I have been a stay at home mom, priding myself on my perfect children, successful husband, and well-crafted athleisure attire. I was a homemaker, a make-it-from scratch smug cook who relished in making my own baby food and feeding my family straight from the farmers market. And this was long before being “organic” was a thing. I was constantly searching for something, an identity, my sense of self. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a function of low self-esteem.

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What’s Stopping You From Loving Yourself? How to Grow Self-Love – 120

By This Grit & Grace Life Podcast / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More Let’s talk about self–love. We all struggle to some extent with it, from doubting ourselves, to battling insecurities, and feeling unworthy. We know these are things we need to let go of, but the problem lies in the fact that we have no idea how. When we search for how to cultivate more self-love, the suggestions we find are just silly. Will getting a massage or buying ourselves another pair of shoes really help us love ourselves more? Let’s be real, those are just cover-ups. If those don’t work, then where do we find more of this thing called self–love? In this episode of This

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Now Is the Time to Ignite Your Confidence

By Rachel Hagstrom / Purpose

I can be real with you, right? I felt a little like an imposter when I first started writing this piece about self-confidence. Two seconds after I signed up to write it, the thought “Hmm, I’m probably not the right girl for the job…” entered my mind. Here’s why: To start, I have a history of caving into the bully voice far too often. Is there a similar voice you hear when a new opportunity arises? For me, it’s the one that tells me I’m disqualified, defective, and not enough. When I’ve listened to it in the past, I’ve ended up missing out on some pretty spectacular opportunities. Furthermore, I am a SAHM who—probably on a daily basis—doubts if I’m truly cut

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Step Into Your Confidence Now – 108

By This Grit & Grace Life Podcast / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More Do you ever find yourself second-guessing your worth, questioning your decisions, or doubting your purpose? Do you generally struggle with confidence? You’re not alone; we’ve all felt that way! But here’s the good news, we don’t have to live there! We genuinely believe every one of us has the grit, grace, and strength we need to overcome that doubt within us. On this episode, co-hosts Darlene Brock and Julie Graham have an honest conversation about what confidence means to them, where they have it, and when they lack it. Most importantly, they offer real, practical ways to grow out of our second-guessing so we

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When Her Yes Feels Like Your No

By Megan Miller / Life & Culture

Her post stared at me like a reflection in the mirror. She was up there sharing a message I could give, to thousands of her followers, and I had a front row seat for what could’ve… even should’ve… been mine. You’ve been there—dying for what others have. Or you’ve been her—having what others want. If we want genuine relationships and contentment, we need to put an end to a scarcity perspective. What is a scarcity mindset? There’s another writer at The Grit and Grace Project named Kelsey, who is a baseball wife, relatively young, and ridiculously beautiful (on the inside and outside). With a scarcity mindset, I would have put Kelsey up on a scale and weighed my value and worth against hers. We’ve

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3 Real Struggles Women Face With Dr. Zoe Shaw – 107

By This Grit & Grace Life Podcast / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | MoreBecause the Ask Dr. Zoe column has given us so many great answers to life’s questions, we decided to bring Dr. Zoe back to the podcast to discuss some of those a little deeper. We have received a lot of questions from women dealing with three specific issues, so we tackled each of those on this episode. How do we handle anxiety or worry and what is “normal?” How do you get your “forever fiancé” to follow through on his commitment? Can you leave hurt or trauma from your past behind? Co-hosts, Darlene Brock and Julie Graham, will tell you that every discussion they have with

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A Modern Day Esther: Finding My Voice Through a Hero in the Bible

By Meaghan Dawson / Faith

It was kind of like a modern-day beauty pageant, minus the talent section. It required no essay entrance exam or interview portion. There were truly only two necessary attributes to be invited into King Xerxes harem—beauty and virginity. That was it. Young girls from every province of the kingdom were screened, gathered, and brought into the harem based solely on these two qualities. Meet Esther. She’s an unlikely hero of the bible, and I like that about her. I get her. Even though thousands of years separate us (and, you know, one of us was royalty and the other not), she and I are not very different. Her lessons are my lessons, our hearts connected. It would be easy to dismiss her

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Good Can Come When You Live in the Shadow

By Ashley Johnson / Faith

I have a confession to make. This article began from a place of pride and pain. Feelings of insignificance, hurt, and loneliness fueled the first two drafts. I even thought it was complete, tied up in a “pretty” bow of words that claimed a moral to the story. It was for the overlooked woman. The lonely woman. The forgotten woman. (Total honesty, I think I was just in a bad mood.) Just hold your head up high, friend. Press on in the strength you’ve developed. Remember your worth, I said. But I knew my heart was in a bad place when I hit the “submit” button. Even now, I’m internally shaking my head at myself in disappointment for my lack of self-control.

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Here’s How to Embrace Growing Older With Grit and Grace

By Amber Koehn / Life & Culture

When I was working one of my first “real” jobs in my early 20s, my brother invited me to his 21st birthday party. I worked the night shift as a copy editor for a local paper about 30 minutes from his school, so after I finished for the night, I drove up to see him. He was hosting a get-together at a bar where he worked, and as I walked up to the door, the bouncer met me and asked to see my ID. This was nothing out of the ordinary, but when he wouldn’t give it back, I became a little concerned. The bouncer called another employee over to look at my ID then said I wasn’t allowed to go in.

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Ask Dr. Zoe – Are My Expectations Too High?

By Dr. Zoe Shaw / Ask Dr. Zoe

‘Faith Over Fear’ Asked: I have been asked by several of my girlfriends who have watched me struggle, and somehow survive, “How do you deal with disappointment?” I don’t have the answers. And if I did, I would be selling it online in mass quantities for all my fellow stressed out warrior women out there. I struggle. It’s human. I would like to think I am secure and confident enough to admit it. One of the largest weaknesses I have is how sensitive I am to other people and their inability to step up and be better people. I want nothing more than for all of us to strive for better character. If the quote goes, “Be the change you wish to see

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I Never Thought I’d Find Purpose in My Pain

By Katey Maddux / HerStory, Faith

I was still reeling from the shock and pain of breaking up with my boyfriend of 5+ years just minutes before. He was my first love, and I loved him with everything I had… I was sitting in the car with one of my best friends, “D and I are done. We have to go out tonight. I can’t think about this.” Going out in Austin, Texas typically means going to 6thstreet. A row of bars, clubs, and debauchery that goes on into the morning. I think this is where my shame stems from… I wanted to go out and get drunk. I wanted to forget. And not face the pain that I knew was coming. I got more than I asked for.

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You Are a Purpose Wrapped in a Person

By Marlys Johnson Lawry / Audio Articles, Purpose

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) Once upon a time, I was a stay-at-home mom. I loved being the one to cheer my children on as they drooled their first grins, stumbled over their first steps, and attempted their first somersaults. Those kiddos grew into teenagers and our parenting objectives changed up a bit. We wanted our home to be a place where they enjoyed hanging out with their friends. It turns out, we never wondered where they were on a Friday night. They were at our place with all their friends—playing their guitars, and playing the piano, and playing video games all at the same time. Gallons of milk would disappear in an afternoon. And if I turned

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