Having Sex vs Making Love

Mixed-Faith Marriages | Q&A with Dr. Jennifer

When a spouse's faith shifts, the anxiety that follows is real. Most of us want to find a way around it, so we seek reinforcement from friends, try to pressure them back into their old position, or just avoid the conversation altogether. But avoiding a difficult reality doesn't make the anxiety go away. In fact, it increases it. In this Q&A episode, Dr. Finlayson-Fife takes questions from those navigating mixed-faith marriages, including how to share where you are without demanding your spouse follow, how to stay collaborative when your worldviews have diverged, and how to raise children when you no longer share the same spiritual framework. Because it is in going toward the hard conversations, not around them, that we grow, and that our marriages can too. _________ Last call for our 2026 Sex Worth Wanting Retreat! [https://buytickets.at/jenniferfinlaysonfifephd/1873985] SAVE 20% on Cozy Earth Products (including their buttery-soft sheets!) HERE with code JFF20 [https://cozyearth.com/]

Desarrollo y Madurez Espiritual [Developing Spiritual Maturity]

WE'VE RECEIVED MANY REQUESTS OVER THE YEARS TO OFFER DR. FINLAYSON-FIFE'S RESOURCES IN OTHER LANGUAGES. MIRIAM PARKIN HAS GENEROUSLY OFFERED HER TIME AND TALENT TO TRANSLATE EPISODES FOR US AND WE WILL ADD THEM TO THE FEED AS THEY COME IN (IN ADDITION TO OUR REGULAR PODCAST PRODUCTION SCHEDULE). YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE ORIGINAL "DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL MATURITY" PODCAST HERE [https://www.finlayson-fife.com/podcasts/conversations-with-dr-jennifer/post/developing-spiritual-maturity]. _________ JODY MOORE [https://jodymoore.com/podcast/], DEL PODCAST *BETTER THAN HAPPY*, ENTREVISTA A LA DRA. FINLAYSON-FIFE SOBRE EL TEMA DE LA MADUREZ ESPIRITUAL. EN LA CONVERSACIÓN ABORDAN: - LA IMPORTANCIA DE LA MADUREZ ESPIRITUAL Y CÓMO ALCANZARLA. - CÓMO VIVIR LA VIDA CON MAYOR HONESTIDAD Y EN CONSONANCIA CON LA PROPIA INTEGRIDAD. - EL PROCESO DE ABORDAR LA OBEDIENCIA CON SABIDURÍA. - EL VERDADERO SIGNIFICADO DEL PUDOR Y CÓMO ENSEÑARLO CON SENSATEZ. - POR QUÉ EL PERFECCIONISMO ES UNA VIRTUD FALSA Y CUÁL ES LA VERDADERA NATURALEZA DE LA BONDAD GENUINA. - CUÁLES SON LOS FRUTOS DE LA MADUREZ ESPIRITUAL.

Rethinking Obedience

All of us start out following the rules of our family or group because we want to stay safe, earn approval, or belong to something larger than ourselves. Safety and belonging are not small motivations, they're important and necessary steps on the pathway of our moral development. But obedience is the first law of heaven for a reason. It was never meant to be the final one. Obedience lays the foundation for us to grow towards something far greater: integrity. In this conversation with Larkin Swain of the Sanctuary Podcast [https://www.sanctuarypod.org/podcast], Dr. Finlayson-Fife walks through her three-stage framework for spiritual and psychological development and explains the role of obedience in each stage. We begin in fear. We grow into belonging. And in Stage 3, we use the moral compass we developed in Stages 1 and 2 to make our decisions not from fear or compliance, but from our own integrity. When we make that shift from living by the letter of the law to the spirit of it, it can feel like something has gone terribly wrong. But it hasn't. It's actually the whole point.  SHOW NOTES: SAVE up to 30% at COZY EARTH through June 1st with code JFF30 [http://www.cozyearth.com]

Finding Joy

Joy is not something we stumble upon. And it's not freedom from suffering. Nor is it the same thing as happiness. Joy is the willingness to see the beauty and goodness around us, even in the midst of difficulty and loss. Joy is a disposition toward living, not a feeling that comes and goes. And developing the capacity for it takes courage. In this episode, Dr. Finlayson-Fife joins Monica Packer of the About Progress [https://www.aboutprogress.com/] podcast to explore what joy actually requires of us, why eros love is at the heart of a marriage that stays alive, and what it means to stop trying to change your spouse and start asking who you want to be instead. SHOW NOTES: SAVE up to 30% at Cozy Earth  [https://cozyearth.com/]with code JFF30 (through 6/1)—HERE [https://cozyearth.com/products/womens-bamboo-stretch-knit-long-sleeve-pajama-set?_pos=5&_sid=bd5aaf48a&_ss=r&variant=41039987146932] are the pajamas JFF loves! Join us for the Sex Worth Wanting Retreat [https://buytickets.at/jenniferfinlaysonfifephd/1873985]! Read That We Might Have Joy [https://amzn.to/42xSOB3] (currently $14.95 on Amazon)

Grace & Growth: Parenting Special Needs Children

Most of us enter parenthood knowing it will be both challenging and rewarding. We expect difficulty. We expect exhaustion. But what we don't expect — and what we can never be fully prepared for — is a life-altering diagnosis and the grief that follows when reality doesn't match what we had envisioned for our child and our family. In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife joins Brad Broyles and Nathan Palmer of The Polaris Connection Podcast [https://polarisacademy.org/podcast] to share more about her own experience as the mother of a son with autism. She discusses the difficulty and overwhelm she faced early on and the unglamorous process of learning to stop trying to solve her son and start truly choosing him. While this conversation centers on parenting a child with autism, it speaks to the universal challenge of loving our children as they are rather than as we imagined them to be. _________ Join us for a one-day couples workshop in Alpine! Tickets HERE [https://buytickets.at/jenniferfinlaysonfifephd/2138688]