Marriage and Intimacy Tips for Christian Couples: Secrets of Happily Ever After

Today I’m talking about lessons I learned in my 38th year. I recorded this episode on my 39th birthday. I like to take some time every year on my birthday to reflect on the experiences and lessons from the past year. As I was doing this ritual today, I realized the past year of my life has been a doozy. I’ve learned and grown so much and went through a major transitional period.I share my experiences, good and bad with you and how I went from a very low point to know exactly what God wanted me to do and how I am working on doing just that each day and feeling so great about it.Don’t forget about my FREE screen-free summer guide that you can download here:  http://www.eepurl.com/dkCLtL.  It has so many suggestions, tips and tricks for making this the BEST summer ever.Also, there are still a few tickets left for the Wannabe Balanced event in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 23rd, but they are going fast. Get your ticket today and use the discount code: monica10 for 10% off the entry. I hope to see you there!For my birthday, I asked all of you to contact me in some way with your feedback about the show, what you are learning and what you would like to hear more of. You can email me at onthebrightersideoflife@gmail.com.Send us a text

Today’s guest is an information security consultant comp TS security plus certified, which basically means she’s really good at tech and she’s passionate about keeping our kids safe online. She is a wife and mom of 3 kiddos under the age of 4, so she’s extremely smart and extremely busy!I was actually going to do something different today, but right after we recorded the interview, I knew that I couldn’t keep her from you one day longer. She shares with us how she feels about tech/phone contracts and what she suggests that is wayyyy better, 4 tips to keep our kids safe online and what parental control and monitoring programs she recommends. Her favorite is called: mSpy and here is the link to get it: http://track.mspy.click/SHAmF. You can tell by the way she talks that she knows what she’s talking about and wants to share her knowledge with us. And I am so grateful!She has an unsearchable Youtube video here: https://youtu.be/wSgG5tXpQD8 with so many more tips and tricks for you that you don’t want your kids to know that you know…if you know what I mean. You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook @themomlifecoach.I cannot say enough good things about this interview. If you have kids or grandkids, you need to listen to this episode. I mean it!Also, I want to remind you about my screen-free summer guide that can be downloaded here: http://eepurl.com/dkCLtL.Send us a text

This week I chatted with an amazing mother of 4, a wife, a blogger, an author and a fellow podcaster who is hosting a live event in Utah on June 23rd. Her name is Crystal Escobar. I loved talking with her, because she was totally open and willing to share with us her struggles and insecurities and how she overcame her fear of talking in front of people and doing live videos. You can now find her on YouTube and doing Facebook and Insta stories and even hosting a live event. She talks about how she has learned to deal with haters and keep on being awesome everyday. Her advice to anyone out there who wants to try something new is to pick one thing and get really good at it, then move on to the next thing. She’s learning to balance all the many facets and roles in her life and teaching others to do the same.You can find her blog and more information about her live event at www.wannabebalanced.com. You can purchase tickets to the Wannabe Balanced Event through her website and don’t forget to use the code: monica10 to get a 10% discount off of your tickets. Come see Jody Moore, Sean Escobar and I’ll be there promoting something really fun! There will be great food, amazing speakers and lots of swag. You can also listen to her podcast on iTunes or any other podcast listening app by searching Wannabe Balanced Podcast. I hope you will love her as much as I do.Send us a text

I have a very special guest on the podcast today. He’s my neighbor and good friend, Russell Brunson. Over the past 10 years, Russell has built a following of over a million entrepreneurs, sold hundreds of thousands of copies of his books, popularized the concept of sales funnels, and co-founded a software company called ClickFunnels that helps tens of thousands of entrepreneurs quickly get their message out to the marketplace.Today, he’s talking about the failures that led to his success and getting personal with me about who and what keeps him humble. He shares with me his #1 key to success, how he learned to get so far out of his comfort zone and his role models and favorite entrepreneurs. This was one of my favorite interviews! I loved getting to know my neighbor better and hear what drives him to succeed and give back.I figured out what gives him the determination to never give up, even when the chips are down and how his belief has saved him from certain destruction.You can find out more about how he trains entrepreneurs to be millionaires at www.russellbrunson.com.Send us a text

Today’s episode is all about one of my favorite subjects, failure. I will talk about the fear of failure and how that could be keeping you stuck and living small. I offer tips about how to dispel the fear and live your very best life.I refer to the book, The Gift of Failure written by Jessica Lahey as I talk about letting our children fail and experience failure so they can gain the self confidence, strength and resilience they will need to grow up into happy, contributing adults.Tune in to hear my special announcements about the freebie I’m working on for you called, Implementing a Screen-free Summer and my guest next week, who is no stranger to failure. Russell Brunson opens up about the failures that led to his success today and how it continues to keep him humble. You won’t want to miss that one!Send us a text

Today’s interview is with ABC’s chief meteorologist and Good Morning America personality, Ginger Zee. Ginger lives in New York City with her husband Ben, and her two boys, Adrian and Miles. She recently wrote a book called Natural Disasters – I Cover Them and I Am One, in which she opens up about her life and her struggle with depression. She is honest and real and gives hope to others who have or are battling similar mental health problems. She also wrote a children’s book called Chasing Helicity, which was just released last week. She is smart, creative, happy, honest and so much fun to interview.In our interview, Ginger opens up about love of the weather, her marriage, her experience with depression and how a woman really can have it all. She also shares with us how she unwinds after a long, stressful day and how she gets so much done everyday. I especially loved one of her final thoughts about how dark clouds will eventually and always clear. They cannot stick around forever, that is just not how the atmosphere works. I love the hope she brings to anyone who is struggling with anything in their life. Just keep going!You can find her books on Amazon.com and through any other book retailer. You can follow her on Instagram @ginger_zee or watch her weekday mornings on ABC’s Good Morning America.A giant “thank you” to Ginger for taking the time to chat with me and even re-record the interview after some technical difficulties. I will always be your number one fan! I just know everyone will love her as much as I do after they listen to her candid interview.Send us a text

Today’s episode is a follow up to last week’s episode with Collin Kartchner about using smart phones and social media responsibly. Today, I’m sharing some ideas that have worked with my family and other ideas I have found to help us not be so addicted to devices. I’m hoping to start an intelligent and engaging conversation with parents about how we can be the example and implement responsible use of smart phones in our homes and families.I reference Dr. Katie Penry’s #Lookup Challenge that can be found on her website www.afriendlyaffair.com. You can also follow her on Instagram @afriendlyaffair.  I love her challenge and everything she is doing. I also talk about IMBD.com and commonsensemedia.org as resources to see what is in movies and phone apps, so parents can be informed about what their kids are watching, playing and using.Please help us create a safer environment for our kids to grow up in by waking up and joining in the conversation. We need everyone to add their voices and ideas, so we don’t loose these kids to the dangers of smart phones and social media.Send us a text

Today’s episode is an interview with a Utah husband and father of four who is passionate about helping our youth avoid the pitfalls of smart phones and social media when they are too young to navigate the turbulent waters of unfettered opinions about everything under the sun. He gained his popularity with parody videos aimed to poke fun at the perfectionism proliferated by social media and the way especially women let the highlight reels of others dictate how they feel about themselves and their lives.In January, Collin learned about a young women he knew and adored who took her own life, because of social media bullying. He and his wife immediately sprung into action in attempts to educate parents of the dangers of smart phones and social media as handing our kids loaded weapons. I am 100% in support of his cause and hope you will all hear our call to action and fight with us.You can find Collin on Instagram @collinkartchner. It’s never too late to take back control of our kids. It’s worth the fight, I promise!Send us a text

This weeks episode is with a podcaster, wife, mom and former English Teacher. Her name is Rachel Neilson and her podcast is called 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms. She has a great concept where each of her episodes is no longer than 30 minutes, but she leaves you with 3 tangible, doable takeaways that you can implement right away. She talks about how she came up with her idea for her podcast and gets candid about her perfectionism and many challenges she has had to overcome in her life and in her podcast.You can find her podcast by searching any podcast app for 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms or on Instagram at @3in30podcast. Her website is www.3in30podcast.com. I just know you will love what she has to share today!Send us a text

This week, we have a special guest on the podcast. She is a wife, a mother of 4 children, a podcaster and an amazing certified life coach…Jody Moore. I have been listening to her podcast for years and absolutely love everything she teaches, so I was so excited when she agreed to come on my podcast to talk about the topic of marriage. In our interview, Jody talks about how to spice up a marriage that has become a little boring, meeting our own needs and not expecting your spouse to meet your needs, dealing with difficult spouses or situations in a marriage and letting go of that idea of a perfect, storybook marriage. All of the principles we talk about can be applied to any relationship are all valuable lessons for anyone who loves another, imperfect human being.To find out more about what Jody teaches and hear her podcast, Better than Happy, or join her membership coaching program, go to www.jodymoore.com. From there, you can sign up for Take Tuesday emails or her once a month ask Jody anything calls. I know you will love her as much as I do!Send us a text