All episodes

Your identity in Christ and your place in His body. "The beauty of the body of Christ is that each and every part is unique, your marriage included, and God will use your uniqueness for His purposes if you let Him." Starting from that line in their book Marriage After God, Aaron and Jennifer Smith encourage every believer who feels overlooked, unqualified, or less spiritual than others: you are a vital, necessary part of the body, and God has given you His Spirit and gifts for His purposes. Walking through Colossians 3:10-11, Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 2 Chronicles 7:1,...

What does real love look like in marriage? In a culture that uses the word love for pizza, movies, and our spouse alike, the word has been diluted, and it's easy to say "I love you" flippantly. In this episode Aaron and Jennifer Smith ask a real and serious question: when we say we love, how do we know we mean it? They look at who defines love (God, who is love, 1 John 4), the proof of love in action (John 14:15, 1 John 3:18), the first mention of love in the Bible in Genesis 22 as a foreshadow...

What does the Bible say about rest and the Sabbath? Rest is a wonderful idea, and we're so glad God came up with it. In this episode Aaron and Jennifer Smith trace the biblical Sabbath from God resting on the seventh day in Genesis 2, through the Hebrew letters of the word sabbath, to the freed Israelites who had known only 400 years of work. They explain why the Fourth Commandment is uniquely fulfilled in Christ (Matthew 11:28, Hebrews 4), so that Jesus himself is our rest, and why keeping a Sabbath is good but never makes us holy. They...

What does it mean to delight in the Lord, and in your spouse? Delight means a high degree of gratification or pleasure: joy. God is not looking for a dry, gray relationship with us, and neither is our spouse. In this episode Aaron and Jennifer Smith break down delight as an active verb in three parts: delighting in the Lord and His Word (Psalm 37:4, read as God giving us His desires), delighting in your spouse, and delighting in your children. They share stargazing memories, from the Christmas Star and a blood moon to Starlink and the 2017 eclipse, and...

What is sanctification, why does it need to happen, and what might it look like in your marriage? If you are a Christian, you are being sanctified. In this episode Aaron and Jennifer Smith teach that God patiently draws sin out of us through our spouses, friends, and circumstances because He loves us. Jennifer tells the story of snapping a snarky question at Aaron over coffee on their new leather couch, and they recount a friend in a car sternly telling Aaron, "you need to stop talking to your wife like that," a moment that changed how they communicate. They...

A new year word for Christian couples: hope that anchors the soul. Returning from a hiatus after the birth of their fifth child, Edith, Aaron and Jennifer Smith kick off Season 5 by acknowledging the hardship of 2020 and anchoring listeners in eternal hope from Hebrews 6, a steadfast anchor of the soul in Christ. They recap what God did in their year: Aaron being appointed a church elder, their first home birth, five of their books in Hobby Lobby, deleting social media apps, and God sifting them through inconvenience, selfishness, and idolatry. They preview the season's topics, including sin,...

How do you make big decisions and changes together in marriage? Change is inevitable: some love it, some hate it, and sometimes it can't be avoided. In this episode Aaron and Jennifer Smith distinguish external change forced on you from internal conviction, and warn against both avoiding necessary change and chasing it out of fleshly cravings. Their practical framework: pray and surrender, seek objective wise counsel rather than building a one-sided case (Proverbs 24:6), go to Scripture, be sober about what a change will cost, listen to one another and make the decision as a team, and give yourself permission...

How can Christian parents prepare their children's hearts to receive the gospel? Sparked by the Parable of the Sower and the question of how each soil got that way, Aaron and Jennifer Smith explain that parents cultivate the soil of their children's hearts while never being able to save them themselves. Drawing on Deuteronomy 11:19 and Proverbs 22:6, they share practical steps: teach the Bible all day long, teach kids to pray by giving them opportunities, teach who God is, model repentance and redemption, and live out your faith rather than saying "do what I say, not what I do."...

Bible characters and marriage: Aaron and Jennifer Smith dig into four lesser-known people in Scripture and what their stories teach couples today. Epaphras, the faithful servant who planted the church in Colossae, struggled in prayer for others and spoke well of them. Jethro gave Moses bold, wise counsel to delegate and raise up leaders instead of burning out alone. Timothy's grandmother Lois and mother Eunice passed down a legacy of faith. And the Ethiopian eunuch, a humble and teachable seeker, was baptized as soon as he heard the gospel. Along the way, Aaron and Jennifer model how a husband and...

The promises of God and how they change the way you live: Aaron and Jennifer Smith work through 2 Peter 1:3-4, which says God's divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ and His precious and very great promises. If you feel weak, powerless, or unable to walk in freedom, this episode is for you. They talk about the transforming power of a renewed mind from Romans 12:2, why promises we don't know about are as worthless as a forgotten hundred-dollar bill, and walk through specific promises from Scripture: provision...