MPF 328: Let Your Life Be a Witness, An interview with Chris and Molly McMahon
"Never be embarrassed to love your wife." – Chris McMahon Summary What does it take to build a thriving business and a strong marriage at the same time? In this episode, Mike sits down with longtime friends Chris and Molly McMahon—financial advisors, founders, parents of five, and marriage warriors. Together, they unpack the real story behind balancing ambition with family, building a faith-filled home without a perfect blueprint, and making decisions that prioritize your marriage even when the world says otherwise. From the mess of early parenthood and maxed-out credit cards to spiritual renewal and raising adult kids with a legacy of love, the McMahons share wisdom from 36 years of marriage. Get ready for candid stories, practical advice, and heartfelt encouragement for couples trying to do it all without losing what matters most. Topics include: Why full transparency is non-negotiable in marriage How to prioritize your spouse even in seasons of hustle Reclaiming Sundays and breaking free from the “frantic family” pace Making faith central—even in business And don’t miss your chance to sign up for the Family Board Meeting, a transformative way to lead your family with intention: messyfamilyproject.org Key Takeaways Put your spouse first. Connect with them and make them a priority no matter what is happening at work. Talk about your spouse with love and respect always to others. Be a witness in the workplace. Put up a sacred image, hold a high standard for yourself and be bold about sharing your faith. Never accept the standards of the world for success. If you feel like both of you “have” to work to get ahead or buy a house, don’t accept that! Think outside the box Make time for the things that matter. Be intentional with how you spend your time and money. If God has blessed you, be a blessing to others. God will give you a mission - respond! Couple Discussion Questions How can we use our time intentionally to prioritize each other? How can we live in a way that puts our marriage first? What is the mission that God is asking us to go on two by two? What is the particular way we can serve Him as a married couple?
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56:55
MPF 327: Five Steps to Give You More Time
The only way to not live constantly in the Urgent is to manage those things that are Important. Summary “How are you?” “BUSY!” Isn't that the response so many of us give when asked this question? How did we all get so busy and how do we get off the crazy train? Parents have as much time as anyone else (even though it doesn’t feel like it!) but they need to be more conscious than anyone else regarding how they spend the precious time they have. In this podcast, we give five steps that parents can use right now to use their time wisely. Using the Eisenhower matrix of Important/Urgent we will show you how to manage those things that are Important (children and all their needs!) so we aren’t always living in the Urgent. Parents must be careful on how they spend time because days turn into weeks, and then years, and then kids are gone! Childhood is short and we need to be very intentional on how we spend our precious time with our precious children. Key Takeaways We all need to evaluate how we are spending our time. If you always feel like you are putting out important fires, then you need to learn how to manage those things so your life isn’t always “urgent”. To make sure you take care of those relationships that are essential in your life, you have to schedule an appointment. Put on your schedule prayer time, date night, special time. One essential way to live a balanced life is to create routines that will build good habits for you and your children. Make your time purposeful. It's not always about the quantity of time, it's also the quality of that time. Keep in mind your mission! The mission of your family is to confer identity, belonging and purpose upon your children. If you don’t do it, they will seek that out from others and that is a scary prospect. Couple Discussion Questions Let’s evaluate our time. Are always putting out fires? Do we feel our life is frantic? How can we identify pain points and create routines to address them? What is the best way to use our time together? What are the needs in our marriage and how can we satisfy those needs when we are together? How can we use our time better with our children? What would they like to do?
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44:31
MPF 326: The Art of Raising Humans
"God gives us our children to heal and transform us." - Kyle Wester Summary In many ways, being a parent is less about our kids and more about our own formation! When we lean into the vocation of parenthood, God can use every experience with our children to show us His love and to form us into the person He has created us to be. In this podcast, we talk to Kyle and Sara Wester, counselors and hosts of the podcast The Art of Raising Humans. During our conversation, they explained four different parenting styles that we move in and out of depending on our life circumstances, how our marriage is actually the most important parenting tool we have, and how our understanding of who we are in the eyes of God affects how we relate to our kids. This podcast is full of great insights for parents and we know you will gain from the Wester’s wisdom. Key Takeaways Children need to be taught relationship skills and correct behavior. The most powerful way they learn is by watching how you relate to your spouse. God gives us our children to heal and transform us. To love our children effectively, we need to first receive God’s love for us personally. Every conflict with our spouse or children is about expectations. When our child exhibits behavior that is inappropriate for a situation, we need to ask ourselves, “What is this behavior telling me about this child?” Discipline comes from discipleship and the foundation of discipleship is relationship. We all must work on having a deep and rich relationship with our children to form them. There are 4 different parenting styles that we move through depending on our life circumstances. We don’t always choose what is best, but we can keep in mind the goal of Loving Guidance and move towards that. Recommended books from the Westers: Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids by Dr. Laura Markham Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by by Rebecca Bailey Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen No Drama Discipline by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson Couple Discussion Questions Are we happy with how we are modeling conflict resolution for our children? How can we do this better? What in our children do we see in ourselves? Write these things down. Do we love these things in ourselves? Why or why not? Resources: The Art of Raising Humans Podcast Link Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/artofraisinghumans Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/artofraisinghumans?igsh=MXkyOGRwbzJ2ZDF1MQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@artofraisinghumans?_t=8itlE1tnZSF&_r=1
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1:21:11
MPF 325: Let’s Get Intimate…
“Lovemaking puts flesh on the vows that we exchange in marriage” - Byron and Francine Pirola Summary A few years ago in Australia, we met an amazing couple who we immediately wanted to share with our listeners. Byron and Francine Piroloa from Smart Loving, are on a mission to make marriages stronger all over the world and they are willing to talk about that subject that few couples will tackle - physical intimacy. We aired this podcast five years ago and it got such a great response that we decided to put it up again for all of you. Listen in as we talk to the Pirolas about how and why you should make time for sex, how the arousal pattern for men is different from women and why sex gets better and better the longer you are married! This is a podcast filled with wisdom, but also laughter and honesty. We hope you will enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed talking to them! Key Takeaways Anything precious and unique needs rules to be protected. That is why the Church gives us boundaries in this area to teach us how to be appropriately vulnerable in our marital relationships A person’s sexual prime is in their 20s, but our erotic prime is reached in our 50s. This is a culmination of our relationship and our intimacy that is built over time. Sexual relations can slip into the “recreational” category in our minds when we are trying to survive. The antidote is seeing sex as a sacred communication that needs to be prioritized. Desire, arousal, climax, resolution is a typical male pattern. For most women the pattern is different - arousal, or foreplay, creates desire in the woman. We need to work and train our brains to connect with our spouse emotionally, to be present, so the intimacy that we share emotionally and physically. Couple Discussion Questions How are we creating a romantic environment in our relationship? Where are we making space for marital relations? How are we opening our hearts to our spouse in lovemaking? Can we work on being present to our spouse and retrain our brains to focus on them? Resources Free Conversation Starter on Sexual Intimacy Smart Loving Marriage Kit Catholiccouplesgetaway.com Family Board Meeting April Course
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1:15:48
MPF 324: Moving from Isolation to Unity
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24 Summary Unity between man and woman was God’s original plan, but the Fall not only broke our relationship with God, it also broke our relationship with each other. But the good news is that Jesus has given us grace in the sacrament of Matrimony so we can have a oneness in marriage that would be impossible otherwise! With unity, couples can handle anything life dishes out. Without it, even the easy things will seem hard. Couples need to constantly be striving for unity, because if spouses aren’t intentional, those marriages will drift apart! In this podcast, we will give you three tools - honoring, forgiveness, and vulnerability - that you can use to start moving towards your spouse. We need to intentionally use these tools to work towards the greater unity within the gift of marriage that God has for us. Key Takeaways All couples must strive for unity - if you float along, you will drift apart Unity was what we were made for, but the fall introduced distrust into the male/female relationships There are three things you can do to move towards unity: honoring, forgiveness, and vulnerability On the scale of Affirmation/Criticism, choose to honor your spouse, even publicly to build them up On the scale of Resentment/Forgiveness, choose to forgive them instead of being resentful of their shortcomings On the scale of Detachment/Intimacy we need to choose vulnerability and openness to our spouse. Couple Discussion Questions On a scale of 1-10, how are we doing in our unity? In which of the three areas can we do better? Which one of these three areas is the most challenging for me? Why do I think that is? Resources Free Mini-Marriage Retreat: https://messyfamilyproject.org/guide/mini-marriage-check-in/ Register for the Family Board Meeting! https://messyfamilyproject.org/course/family-board-meeting/ Easter Webinar Register here…. www.Catholiccouplesgetaway.com
Über Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
Parenting is not a clean-cut, simple process for those who like to follow the rules. Family life is messy and unpredictable, but it is the greatest adventure you will ever have. We are Mike and Alicia Hernon, parents of 10 children ranging from 10 to 27 and we would like to invite you into some of the conversations we have had with each other about marriage, parenting, and Catholic family life. Our hope is that our conversation sparks a dialogue between you and your spouse that leads to greater unity and intentional Christian parenting in your home. Listen in to our podcast and start the conversation as we seek to lead our families to heaven.
Visit us at https:///www/MessyFamilyProject.org for resources, guides, links and show notes.
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