All episodes

Why do Christians need mentors? Using the line "with great power comes great responsibility," Aaron and Jennifer Smith make the case that mentorship is every believer's responsibility, not just the job of pastors or people with degrees. They share how their own mentors, Aaron's youth pastor and Jennifer's home-group leaders, shaped their lives, and explain that you don't need a special testimony to mentor someone, just availability and honesty, building trust through repeated quality time before deeper questions come. Framing mentorship as part of the Great Commission's call to make disciples of Jesus, they encourage you to invite people into...

How do you navigate marriage when you have different interests and hobbies than your spouse? Aaron and Jennifer Smith explore the art of learning to love what your spouse loves. After Jennifer shares an update on her weight-loss journey, they draw on Jeremy and Audrey Roloff's principle of sharing and a line from A Severe Mercy, that if one of us likes anything, there must be something to like in it, to show how shared interests create a thousand strands of connection. Practical steps include inviting yourself in, asking questions, giving your time, investing money, and encouraging your spouse. Then...

A Christian review of the Jesus Revolution movie and what the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 70s can teach the church today. Aaron and Jennifer Smith both grew up in Southern California with deep ties to the Calvary Chapel story: Aaron attended Greg Laurie's Harvest Christian Fellowship and was raised on Calvary Chapel radio. They talk through what the film dramatizes and why it honestly shows the messiness of the people involved, including Lonnie Frisbee's hunger for attention and his split with Chuck Smith, and how 1 Corinthians 1 reminds us that God uses imperfect, foolish people. Then they...

Looking for spring date ideas to get your marriage out of a rut? Aaron and Jennifer Smith share 12 fun, simple date night ideas for married couples as winter gives way to spring: a picnic hike, chess at the park, visiting a plant nursery, a backyard fire pit, getting ice cream, trying food trucks, roller skating or biking, the community pool, pickleball, yard sales, making art together, and fishing. Along the way they reflect on their own early dates, like Little Caesars and split Subway sandwiches, and their jiu-jitsu date nights today. Pointing to Ecclesiastes 9:9 and Proverbs 5:18-19, they...

Texting in marriage can build connection or quietly create conflict. Aaron and Jennifer Smith talk about how phones, apps, and text messaging have reshaped the way couples communicate, and what gets lost when facial expression, tone, and eye contact are stripped away. They share practical guidelines for texting your spouse: be patient when they are busy, wait to share deep or harsh feelings in person, do not lean on emojis or curt replies, avoid passive-aggression, and do not be quick to take offense. Then they flip it around with positive ways to use texts, like compliments, affirmations, sharing a verse...

What is the meaning and purpose of intimacy in marriage? We often equate intimacy with sex or physical connection, but Aaron and Jennifer Smith make the case that it is far deeper. They break intimacy into four areas couples can engage in: emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual, and warn about the danger of withholding any one of them. They unpack the Hebrew word yada, to know experientially and not just in your head, used both for knowing God and for Adam knowing his wife, and show how Christ makes true intimacy with God and with your spouse possible. Jennifer shares...

Is the gospel only for unbelievers? Aaron and Jennifer Smith remind Christians that the good news of Jesus is not something we leave behind after salvation, but the daily power that transforms and sanctifies us. Aaron explains why he defaults to the gospel when he does not know how to fix a problem, and they share how Jennifer literally preached the gospel to him during his struggle with pornography. They connect it to the armor of God in Ephesians 6, the helmet of salvation and feet fitted with the gospel of peace, and to the warning in Hebrews 3 against...

What does it really mean to love your spouse? We use the word love for everything from pets to food to cars, so Aaron and Jennifer Smith ask what makes the love we promise in marriage different. They challenge the feelings-based definition of love, pointing to a Harvard brain-scan study of dopamine responses, and argue that love is mostly a verb proven by action, modeled by Christ giving Himself up for the church in Ephesians 5. They critique transactional, balance-scale love where each spouse keeps a ledger, and explain why forgiveness, wiping out the debt instead of demanding repayment, is...

How do you transform your marriage together this year? Aaron and Jennifer Smith share seven concrete ways to see real change: write down shared goals for your marriage and your walk with the Lord, live out the Golden Rule from Matthew 7:12, hold your tongue when you are angry, stop being easily offended, pursue more romance and more sex, invest in your marriage through date nights, retreats, books, and prayer, and see your spouse and yourself through Christ's eyes. They explain why the order matters, why change is possible because God's Spirit is in us, and why transformation happens one...

Do you struggle with keeping your word? Aaron and Jennifer Smith explore the discrepancy between what we say and what we actually do, from everyday promises like I'll be there at 10 or I'll pray for you, to commitments we make to ourselves. Using honest examples from their own lives, they unpack why we make hollow promises, including wanting to please people in the moment and living lives too chaotic to follow through, and why broken words erode both our self-perception and our spouse's trust. Grounded in James 5:12, Matthew 5:37, Proverbs 18:21, and Ecclesiastes 5, they share practical ways...