The Mission Driven Mom Podcast

Audrey Rindlisbacher
  • 5.0 (59)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

For moms and women who want to increase their confidence, and discover and develop their unique gifts, while strengthening themselves and their families. *Over 50 5-Star Reviews*

  1. 2d ago

    EP 161 Mission Driven Story: Jacques Lusseyran

    Resources from the Episode:  Mothers of Creation - Provo, Utah - September 26th Episode 11: Mission Driven Story: Jacques Lusseyran I want to tell you about a man named Jacques Lusseyran. He was eight years old when a classmate bumped into him in the middle of a crowded classroom and sent him crashing into the corner of a teacher's desk. His glasses didn't break. The arm of the frames went into the tissue of his right eye. By the time he woke up the next day, he was completely blind. And yet by the end of his life, he would say that every single day he thanked heaven for making him blind. This week's episode is his story. Jacques went on to become a leader of the French Resistance during World War II, eventually leading a movement of more than 600 young men and women. He was arrested, interrogated, and sent to Buchenwald. He was one of 30 survivors from a transport of 2,000 prisoners. What makes his story so extraordinary is not just what he survived. It's what he discovered. AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT Episode 161: Jacques Lusseyran — Choosing to Be a Creator Introduction AUDREY: Welcome back to the podcast. Today I have the honor of telling you the story of Jacques Lusseyran. He was a French Resistance fighter during World War II, but his story is so much more than that, as I’m sure you’re going to find out. Years ago I did a longer, more thorough podcast on his life, showing how he lived the seven laws of life mission — you can go listen to that one too if you’d like. But today I want to share some of the key highlights of his life with a very specific lens in mind. I’m going to focus on a few principles that we’ll be diving deep into this fall at our Mission Driven Mom celebration for our Mothers of Creation. Through Jacques’s experiences, I want to help you see how powerful it is when we choose not to be a victim but to be a creator instead — regardless of what life throws at us. And I want you to see what vision really is, and how it empowers us to navigate the most difficult moments of our lives. AUDREY: I’m going to begin by telling you his story, and while I do, I want you to keep some principles in mind — the ones we’ll focus on at the celebration this year. Number one: when we respond to life as a victim of circumstances, we get frustrated, stuck, and lose our way. Two: a victim mindset robs our vision and makes us blind. Three: we can choose to be a creator regardless of circumstances. Four: responding to life as a creator causes us to feel liberated, clear, and even joyful. And five: our choice to live in a creator orientation blesses not just us, but those around us — and sometimes our whole community and beyond. When I finish Jacques’s story, I’ll remind us of those principles again and encourage you to take some time this week to ponder them in your own life. Losing His Sight AUDREY: So here we go. On a beautiful May morning in 1932, little Jacques was at school as usual. At ten o’clock the children jumped up, all of them excited to get outside, running all over the classroom. As Jacques moved toward the front of the room, a student darted past and hit him, causing him to fall into the corner of the teacher’s desk. His new glasses were made of shatterproof glass, so they didn’t break — instead, the arm of the spectacles drove into the tissue of his right eye, and he lost consciousness for the next twenty-four hours. During that time, doctors discovered that his right eye was completely destroyed and would have to be removed, and that his left retina had been so badly torn that by the time he woke up the next day, his whole life had changed. At the tender age of eight years old, he would be blind for life. AUDREY: Physically he recovered quickly. Within a month he was walking again; the next month he was learning Braille; and by the third month he was running and playing on the playground with the other children. But overcoming his blindness was a different challenge. He said this: “It was a great surprise to me to find myself blind, and being blind was not at all as I had imagined it. Nor was it as the people around me seemed to think. They told me that to be blind meant not to see, and for a time I still wanted to use my eyes. I looked in the direction where I was in the habit of seeing before the accident, and there was anguish, a lack, something like a void, which filled me with what grown-ups call despair. AUDREY: “Finally, one day I realized I was looking the wrong way. I could still see — in myself. I could still picture myself in the Champ de Mars. I knew the garden well: its ponds, its railings, its iron chairs. Naturally, I wanted to see them again, but I couldn’t. At this point some instinct — I was almost about to say a hand laid on me — made me change course. I began to look more closely, not at the things outside but at a world closer to myself, from an inner place, from further inside. Instead of clinging to the movement of sight toward the world outside, the substance of the universe drew together, redefined itself, and formed itself anew. I was aware of a radiance emanating from a place I knew nothing about. I felt an indescribable relief, and a happiness so great it almost made me laugh. Confidence and gratitude came like a prayer that had been answered. I found light and joy at the very same moment.” AUDREY: This experience relieved him of his initial despair. It enabled him to overcome the fear of blindness and gave him a way forward. Yet learning to navigate the other aspects of his blindness took time. One important tool he slowly discovered was that his thoughts and emotional choices had a profound impact on his ability to “see” and to function well as a blind person. Fear, Not Blindness AUDREY: As Jacques made his way through this new world, he eventually learned that it was actually fear — not the loss of sight — that made him truly blind. This is what he said about it: “Fear made me blind. Anger and impatience had the same effect, throwing everything into confusion. The minute before, I knew just where everything in the room was; but if I got angry, things got angrier than I was. When I was playing with my small companions, if I suddenly grew anxious to win, to be first at all costs, then all at once I could see nothing. I could no longer afford to be jealous or unfriendly, because the moment I was, a bandage came down over my eyes. But when I was happy and serene, when I approached people with confidence and thought well of them, I was rewarded with light.” AUDREY: In this way, Jacques gained a mastery over himself rarely achieved, especially in a child. He discovered that he had to rein in his natural tendencies toward anger, pettiness, unkindness, and jealousy. The temptation to give in to self-pity and victimhood was strong, but Jacques began to realize that when he chose to live according to true principles and governed his heart and mind instead, his ability to function well and happily in the world was restored. This insight was revolutionary for him. AUDREY: This process helped him grow into a man he could not otherwise have been. Through daily practice, he developed a high level of command over himself, along with an enhanced ability to love others more fully. This generated inner peace and self-confidence and endeared him to everyone who knew him. The character he built by living these principles spilled over into other areas of his life, and his education became a great success story. Through his persistence in learning Braille and studying hard, he was able to remain in the classroom alongside sighted students — can you imagine? — eventually winning first place in his class. The Coming of War AUDREY: Although Jacques had already faced and overcome extremely difficult challenges, another great crisis came into his life during his high school years: the outbreak of World War II. Fortunately, he had developed immense emotional, mental, and spiritual maturity in his younger years, and now it served him well. Already a very conscientious man, the war awakened in him a strong desire to know, to understand, to make sense of what was happening. For Jacques and his friends, the war was a call to action. They dug deeper into their studies and read the greatest thinkers, searching for answers. AUDREY: This is what he said about that time: “We wanted to learn how to live, and that was a much more serious matter. And we wanted to learn fast, because we felt that the next day it would surely be too late. There were signs of death on land and in the air, from the Spanish War to the frontiers of Russia — not just signs, but battles to the death. The feeling rumbled inside us, pressing to come out into the open: unless we were up to making a better world than our elders had made, the orgy of stupidity and killing would go on until the end of the world. I sat up late at night. I had thrown myself furiously into the study of philosophy. I wanted to understand it all, and I felt it was urgent. I don’t know exactly why, but it seemed to me that such a chance would not come again — that I was going to be snatched away to more worldly responsibilities. All the ideas of men who had dedicated themselves to thought found their way into my head for the first time, from Pythagoras to Bergson, from Plato to Freud. I examined them as closely as I could.” AUDREY: By the following spring, France had been occupied by the Germans. Of this time, Jacques wrote, “In me was a pack of fears and desires, intentions and irritations, which had had me clenched in a tight fist for weeks.” Then he learned that one of his closest friends had been arrested. Three days later, he contracted measles. He felt the illness was as much a moral lesson as a physical one. Of the change that took place in him as a result of the sickness, he said: “This was no microbe or virus making its way in me. It was

    22 min

  2. Jun 22

    EP 160 What Disney has been teaching us about being victims

    Resources from the Episode:  Mothers of Creation - Provo, Utah - September 26th EP 159 You're probably not a victim. Except you kind of are.  Here is something I need you to know before you watch Frozen again. The moment everyone cheers. Elsa in her ice castle, belting "Let It Go," finally free, finally herself. That moment is not the triumph we think it is. That moment is Elsa playing the victim. Lindsey Wright is back on the podcast this week, and she has done something I think is truly brilliant. She took the six victim types we've been studying and matched each one to a Disney character. The result is one of the most clarifying conversations we've ever recorded. AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT Introduction AUDREY: Welcome back to the podcast. I’m Audrey Rindlisbacher, author of The Mission Driven Life and founder of The Mission Driven Mom. So grateful to have you with us today. I want to ask you a question. If every Disney movie only exists because there’s a problem, what if those beloved stories are actually teaching us how to be victims? We’re going to talk about that today. AUDREY: This is Lindsey Wright who’s with me today. We recently did a podcast where we talked about victim types — all six of them. We broke them down, gave you some detail on a couple so you could really begin to understand how they work and what they are. We talked about how when we can see ourselves in these victim types, it helps us identify the fact that we’re acting like a victim, and then we can start to work on a way out. Lindsey mentioned this a couple of different times: naming things can be so incredibly helpful. It helps us better understand what it is that we’re doing and why we’re doing it. For me, that’s been a catalyst for change, because I don’t want to be the dummy or the avoider or the quitter — but how do I be different? Lindsey has built out a beautiful framework for that which she teaches inside our Mothers of Creation community. If you haven’t listened to our previous episode, we encourage you to go back and listen, but you can also start here and go back afterward. Today we’re going to dive deeper into the victim types by talking about Disney movies — some core stories that we’re probably all very familiar with. AUDREY: Before we do that, Lindsey, as you were building this out, why did you head toward these Disney stories? What tipped you off to the idea that these characters could help illustrate the victim types? Why Disney? LINDSEY: First of all, I think because Disney is so much a part of the culture. I grew up with Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast — we had never seen movies like that before. It was just part of my growing up. And Disney has long been associated with family. I felt like it was something we could all understand quickly, something that would help make these abstract ideas a little more concrete. LINDSEY: Everything we watch, everything we listen to, everything we read is trying to teach us something or convince us of something. Are we aware of the lessons we’re receiving? I thought if I could give people an image — something familiar — that would be really helpful as we teach these different victim types. And once I started going, I realized a movie is not a movie unless it has some drama. That’s why we watch it. There’s a problem, characters react to it, and we would not enjoy the movie if the characters always stayed in the drama. What we want to see is transformation. So it’s a rich resource — you see not only the victim types, but how each character gets out of them. I’ve really tried to stay away from the villains because I want us to see that these victim types are all of us. We embody all of them, some more than others. But that also means that all of us have the tools to get out of them. The Avoider: Elsa (Frozen) AUDREY: Let’s start with the avoider. Who did you choose for this one? LINDSEY: I’m not trying to destroy Disney movies, but the character I chose for the avoider is Elsa. If you watch just a clip of ‘Let It Go,’ you can see all of the things we’ve connected to this victim type. She’s afraid. She doesn’t want to lose control. She fears the emotional discomfort of reaching out to people, so she avoids it all. She builds her ice castle in the mountains, decides she’s going to be by herself. She doesn’t trust herself. She doesn’t think anything is going to change or get better. She can’t face it. She’s overwhelmed. She’s stuck. LINDSEY: And in the theater, that moment — that ‘Let It Go’ song — is meant to be a girl-power high point. You go, Elsa. You show them. The singing is beautiful, she’s being herself. And yet — actually, she’s being a victim. We know this because her reaction causes problems. What we see at the end of the movie is that she has to learn something about herself. She has to learn that love is more powerful than fear. That relationships are more valuable than anything she could do by herself. There’s something she has to learn about who she is — and that is a pattern I’ve noticed over and over as I’ve connected these victim types to Disney characters. AUDREY: What’s so interesting is that Elsa is the hero. She’s the one with superpowers. Her sister Anna is the one who’s ‘normal’ — and yet Anna is the one problem-solving, taking risks, facing fears, doing hard things. Elsa just sits in her castle and avoids and blames, while Anna is actively fixing things. Elsa technically has more power than her sister, who is the one making things happen. Which tells us a lot about what we’re doing when we play the victim. We’re snuffing out our own power. AUDREY: Why do you see Elsa as the avoider rather than the quitter? LINDSEY: She’s an avoider because she doesn’t even engage at all. The quitter engages and then it gets too hard, and so they quit. Elsa is just ‘no, I’m not going to have anything to do with it.’ She’s been avoiding all the way along — from the very beginning, putting the gloves on her hands — and then she does the ultimate act of avoidance. Her parents were teaching her some of those behaviors, and she just plays them out as she gets older and the consequences get bigger. AUDREY: One other thought: we mentioned last time that this is built around the drama triangle that Stephen Karpman taught — the simple triangle where, when we’re in problem stories, there’s always a victim, a rescuer, and a persecutor. What we didn’t mention is that the whole reason the drama triangle exists is because everyone wants the victim role. They’re all vying to be seen as the victim. Even persecutors don’t just show up wanting to be persecutors — they want to be seen as victims too. And one of the most important things to understand about this is that when we play the victim, we actually show up to others as a persecutor. LINDSEY: Exactly. Elsa feels like a persecutor to the people around her. She’s playing the victim, but when others try to empower and encourage her to take action, she lashes out like a persecutor. And it shows how subtle some of these victim orientations can be. She feels like she’s doing the right thing. The avoider feels like they’re doing something — but they’re reacting, making their own little plans in their own little world, convinced they’ll figure it all out alone. AUDREY: So how does Elsa’s story become untangled? Because the most powerful movies and stories speak to us because of the transformation of a character — and that’s who we all are, characters in our own story wanting transformation. LINDSEY: What we’re waiting for is when is she going to wake up and realize how powerful she is, that she’s a creator, that she can do it. And as soon as the character sees it, it sparks something in us and makes us come to life because we identify with them. Maybe I’m a creator. Maybe I’m powerful. Maybe I can do things I didn’t think I could do. LINDSEY: The truth the avoider needs to understand is that right now is what I can control. Elsa learns that fear is hard to control — but love? You can control that. We’re in control when we’re acting in love toward ourselves and toward other people. That’s the shift she makes. What I want right now is this relationship with my sister. What I want right now is to have love guiding me instead of fear. That’s what she needed, and that’s what the people around her needed. The Quitter: Simba (The Lion King) AUDREY: Let’s move on to the quitter. Who did you choose? LINDSEY: The character I chose for the quitter is Simba from The Lion King. The quitter starts going, but then it gets really hard and they stop. We see Simba’s dad showing him the kingdom — he’s so excited, ‘I just can’t wait to be king.’ And then his dad is murdered. His uncle tells him to run, that everyone will hate him, that he has to get out. And so he quits. Hakuna Matata. Goes off and lives this carefree life. LINDSEY: But it’s not as his real self. His power and potential are snuffed out. It’s a mistaken, distorted identity. He’s avoiding the pain of who he’s actually supposed to become by abandoning the path. AUDREY: And then — Rafiki. That moment in the movie. LINDSEY: Yes. We’re right back to identity. Simba has to remember who he is. He is the son of a king. He is the rightful king. He has to take responsibility — and he hasn’t been, wandering around doing Hakuna Matata. He has to remember that identity and go back to claim his spot. That’s why we love the ending. He becomes who he was meant to be, reaches his potential. LINDSEY: The tool for the quitter is that they can practice the principles, rely on the truth they know, and patiently wait. Because principles work. Baby steps. Principles always work. I know that if I take responsibility, remember who I am, work my way back, renegotiate the relat

    27 min

  3. Jun 17

    EP 159 You're probably not a victim. Except you kind of are.

    Resources from the Episode:  Mothers of Creation - Provo, Utah - September 26th David Emerald's book, Three Vital Questions MDM Academy     Most of us would never describe ourselves as victims. And yet — if someone asked you where you feel resentful, or stuck, or like things just keep happening to you no matter what you do — you'd probably have an answer pretty quickly. That's what this week's episode is about. Lindsay Wright is back, and she's walking us through something called the victim types — six different ways that we show up in a victim orientation without ever realizing that's what we're doing. Not because we're weak or broken, but because these patterns were useful once. They helped us manage fear, avoid pain, survive hard seasons. The problem is they also keep us stuck.     AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT   Introduction and Context AUDREY: Welcome back to the podcast. I’m Audrey Rindlisbacher, author of The Mission Driven Life and founder of the Mission Driven Mom. I’m so excited for you to join me today as I have a great conversation with Lindsey Wright. Now, most of us don’t think of ourselves as victims, except that we do often show up as one of six or seven victim types in our real lives without realizing that we’re doing that. And that’s what we’re going to deep dive into today. So Lindsey, thanks for being here. Super excited to talk to you. Just as a little bit of background, let me explain the context of what we’re going to talk about today. The drama triangle is something that not a lot of people know about, but it’s an insanely helpful framework for seeing how you’re getting stuck in your life. There’s a persecutor, a victim, and a rescuer in this drama triangle that we all kind of fall into. And yet in the end, when we’re in drama, we often feel stuck because we are actually being a victim without realizing that we’re being a victim. We call this problem orientation and we call it our problem story. Now you and I — if you think about it for a minute — you’ll realize that you know plenty of people in your world who complain and struggle with things that just aren’t a problem for you, that that would just not be an issue for you in your life. Well, that’s what we call a problem story because it’s not a problem for everybody. It’s a problem for you, or it’s a problem for them, because of who they are, because of how they think, because of what’s showing up in their life. And there are certain reasons why that’s a problem story, which we can talk about another time. But this is the framework for what we’re going to talk about today: that we get stuck in our lives in problem stories. Maybe it’s a rebellious child. Maybe it’s the loss of a job. Maybe it’s a spouse that asks for a divorce. Or maybe it’s something simpler, like you just can’t seem to get the weight off and you’ve been trying for years and you are sick and tired of it. You just incessantly complain about how you can’t lose the weight because you’re a victim to your weight. And so these problem stories keep us frustrated and irritated and angry, or whatever the case might be. And we want to talk to you about how you might be showing up in this problem story as a certain type of victim. Lindsey’s going to help us understand why knowing a little bit more about what victimhood is and the different types of victims can be insanely helpful as a catalyst to help us see what we’re doing to ourselves a little more clearly, and be the first step toward getting out of this problem story and getting the car back on the road and moving again. So as a little bit of background, if you’ve been around very long, you probably recognize Lindsey’s face. She’s been with the Mission Driven Mom from the beginning. She’s phenomenal. She’s brilliant. She helped vet content for the Academy, helped get it built, has mentored hundreds and hundreds of women for us, has spoken on our stages, and I just can’t even begin to say how much I love her and how incredible she is. She has taken on the job of mentoring women who are going to be attending our Mothers of Creation event this fall. Bless her for that. We have an online community and we talk about these victim types in detail. Women are mentored in them in preparation for coming to this event. So she’s going to share with all of you today a little bit of what’s been going on in that community and why it makes such a huge difference. So the first question I want to ask you today, Lindsey, is: why do the victim types matter? Why do they matter, do you think, in general? And specifically, why do they matter to you?   Why the Victim Types Matter Lindsey: The victim types matter because they just help to bring awareness to something we might not realize that we’re doing, or patterns of thought and behavior that we don’t realize that we’re perpetuating. And so there are these victim types. I think if I were just to ask you, “Where are you being a victim in your life today?” your automatic response would be, “Well, I’m not,” because we don’t want to believe that about ourselves. But if I were to ask you, “Is there anywhere in your life that you feel resentful?” that might give you some clues, something that you could think about. And then if I were to say, “Well, there’s a way of being a victim that the feeling you get is this resentment,” and tie that back to the specific victim type, I think that’s a little bit more helpful in helping us to see these things, these things that we’re doing in our lives. AUDREY: Why does it matter to you personally, then? Have you had that experience? Lindsey: Yes. It’s so fascinating to me. The more that I learn about the victim orientation and the creator orientation, and I look for that in my life and I find it. But then — because I don’t just stay there, and that’s part of what we’re doing in the fall. We don’t want to just stay in the victim orientation. We want to learn how to get out of it. But awareness is that first step. And so when we become aware and I can start to see those things in my life, what’s happened is that I’ve been able to make changes in my life. I’m not stuck in some of the places that I was stuck in before. I feel more empowered. My relationships are better. Like, everything is better. My thinking is more clear when I can notice these things about myself and then also know what to do when I see them. AUDREY: Agreed. And we’ll get into this here in just a second. But just for me, knowing the title of what I’m doing — of how I’m being a victim — helps me see why I should just do the opposite of that. And there’s so much rich context that you’ve helped build around all of these victim types, and you can explain that to us. But just the title for me is so helpful because then it gives context around my attitudes, my behaviors, the way I’m approaching things. And it’s hugely motivating because I don’t want to be a doormat or I don’t want to be a chameleon. I don’t want to be that thing. And so it stimulates me to want to get out of that victim mindset and be different. Lindsey: Yes. And when you can name something, then you can start to create order. That is part of the process of creation — you have to name it. AUDREY: That’s a great point. Identify it, and then you can move on to the next steps. Yes, super helpful. All right. So let’s head into this. Can you give us a little more context around how you would answer the question: what is a victim type?   What Is a Victim Type? Lindsey: So all victims have a few things in common. All victims have something that they’re afraid of. All victims don’t want to take responsibility for something. All victims blame. There are certain characteristics of just this victim orientation in general. But these types of victims are helpful because they help us to see some of the nuances. They help us to see that there are a few different flavors of being a victim. And they’re a little bit different in the thoughts. So one of the things I’ve done is I’ve tried to connect a thought and a feeling to each of these victim types to help us understand it a little bit better. And so the thought and the feeling, there’s nuance there. And then the tool and the truth that they need to get out of it is also a little bit different. So when we can isolate this certain particular flavor of victim that we are participating in, then it’s helpful because then we know the next step. We know how to get out of it. AUDREY: Yeah. So with that in mind, let’s just walk through each of these and you can kind of give us some context and framework with some of the things that you feel like are most vital to understand about each one.   The Avoider Lindsey: So one of the first victims that we talked about in our Mothers of Creation community is the avoider. And I know from conversations that you and I have had, we both really struggle with the avoider. AUDREY: Yep. Lindsey: And I want to say that it’s not — we’re not bad people because we have this tendency. It’s just something that we do. It’s something that maybe we picked up — just the way we handle pain and struggle. It worked for us then, but now we know better, and so we’re going to do better. AUDREY: So when you were just talking, Lindsey, it made me think that maybe for our listeners one of the things that might be helpful to think about is that one aspect of the victim type is the way that you respond to fear. So something is happening that you don’t want to have happen, that you don’t like, that you’re afraid of. So what do you do about it? How do you respond to it? And like you said, for me, one of the common ways that I respond to fear is to avoid. But then the problem is that later on I look back and regret that I didn’t do something. And maybe doing s

    33 min

  4. Jun 10

    EP 158 A Husband's Take: What Saved Our Marriage

    Resources Mentioned in the Episode:  Free Training: How to Stop Feeling Powerless and Become the Expert in Your Own Life Seven Habits of Highly Effective People The 6 Geniuses   I asked my husband Blaine a question at the end of our podcast conversation this week. I asked him what all of our work in learning to understand and live principles has been worth to our family. And he got quiet for a second, and then he said he thought it was “immeasurable.” That there “are too many benefits to name.” Then he said something that stopped me in my tracks: “I think we still have a family because of it.” This week on the podcast, Blaine is here. And we are talking about our marriage — the real version. The rocky years, the finances, the addiction, the therapy that didn't work, the day things got bad enough that we both finally woke up. We are sharing it because I know there are women listening who are right where I was — committed to their marriage, committed to their family, but feeling stuck and completely powerless to change anything.     AI Generated Transcript Introduction Welcome to the Mission Driven Mom podcast. This podcast is for moms just like you, who want to learn how to glorify God through finding and embracing true principles, discovering and developing your greatest gifts, and using them to serve your family and community. Alright, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Audrey Rindlisbacher, author of The Mission-Driven Life and founder of The Mission-Driven Mom. I'm super grateful to have you with us today, and the best part is that my husband is here. We are going to talk about him and me and our marriage and our family, and what it has to do with you and your marriage and your family. So we're just going to start today by talking. Blaine, tell us a little bit about yourself. Just who you are, what some of your hobbies are, what you enjoy doing, so they can start to become familiar with who you are.   Meet Blaine Blaine: I'm Blaine. Nice to virtually meet all of you. I am married to Audrey, and we have six kids. I have a life of sales and construction experience, and I love hobbies. I love to hike, I love to read. Shakespeare's my favorite. I play the viola, I'm in an orchestra, and I love to learn languages. And remodeling. I do love construction. Audrey: So much. And gardening. Blaine: That is true. Yeah. So many things. But I like construction more than gardening, though, to be honest. Audrey: Yes. Alright, so then tell us a little bit about how long we've been married and some of the words that you might use to talk about our marriage and about me. Blaine: We've been married 32 years. Is that right? Audrey: Yes. That's good. Blaine: And words about you? And us? I would describe us as people that are really trying to find out the truth. Our mission statement is "The truth shall make you free," so that's what our lens is always trying to find. If we have something that is difficult in our lives, it takes us sometimes a long time, sometimes it doesn't take very long, to try to find out what's the truth that's really going to solve this problem or make us so we can accomplish this thing that we want to do. So that's kind of our pursuit always. And then we find out sometimes we went down the wrong path. We didn't do it quite right, or we could improve it, and so then we try to improve it from there and level it up even higher. Audrey: That's true. Would you agree? Except it hasn't always been that way. Blaine: Oh. I think we've always been the kind of people that want to improve as individuals, but we didn't always have the tools and the language that you just used, for sure. Audrey: No. And I think I would also say just about us, just our marriage in general. To describe our marriage, I would say that we've always been good friends, and we've always really had a lot in common and had a lot of chemistry and enjoyed each other's company, but it hasn't always been easy to navigate the marriage. And there have been rocky and rough times for sure. Blaine: It's true. I've been happily married for 32 years, and I think you're at 16 now, right? Audrey: Yeah, that's your favorite thing to say. It's unfortunately true. Blaine: Which makes it sound like our marital problems were all your fault. That's definitely not true. But we had good enough times that you stuck in there with me. We did have a lot of good things that we did over the years and good times together. And we've always respected each other quite a bit. And we were very motivated to keep the marriage together, to figure things out, but we didn't always know the way.   The Early Years: Challenges and Struggles Audrey: So let's go back. We want to talk today to couples who are maybe in some of the same situations that we were in when we were younger. Couples that love each other, that want to stay married but don't always know the way forward. Not because we have a lot of marital advice, but because we have an academy that empowers and arms women and mothers and wives to know how to better navigate and negotiate themselves. So we thought we would just take a little trip in time today with you and go back through some of our experiences together and how the concepts and principles and language and tools that we have had the privilege of putting into our academy made a difference for us, and specifically how they made a difference for me, and through me made a difference for us. How would you describe me and what I was going through before this all began when we just had our three little ones? Blaine: I thought everything was hunky-dory, except for all the problems we had. But you... I thought you were all chillax, everything was good. But then things weren't good, and you were like... I just remember you walked around saying, "I'm so intellectually bored. I need to be intellectually stimulated." And I kept saying, "What does that mean?" And you just had this constant frustration. You were longing for something, and I understand what it is now, but I didn't know then. Audrey: Well, neither did I. That's why you kept going around asking. I mean, you asked it all the time. I wanted some depth. "I just need something. What do I need? What do I need? What do I need?" I wanted some mental challenge. Blaine: And so I remember that. With my addiction, we both struggled a lot. I struggled a lot more, I think. But how to not take it personally... You were always really good to me and patient with me, but I think you still struggled more at the beginning than you did later on. Audrey: What do you mean? Blaine: Struggling with being married to an addict. You had no idea what to do. And then later on you felt more empowered and you handled it better. Audrey: What else would you say about that time in our life? Other challenges we had going on? Blaine: Finances. How to handle finances. How to parent the best we could. You had relationships that sometimes were real sticky and you weren't sure what was going on and how to handle them with extended family and even some friends. That caused a lot of heartache at times. Audrey: Yeah. I felt like at the time, and this is one of the reasons why when we found this education and this pathway forward of something to do and try, I just knew that we were both in it. We weren't going anywhere, and I knew that we were both trying. I mean, you were so dedicated to me staying home with the kids. I said many times, "Should I go work?" And you were like, "No, no, no. I will figure it out. I want you to feel like you can stay home with the kids and be there, especially when they're young." So we were in it in that regard, but I also felt like we lacked unity in a lot of ways. Like, we weren't really always on the same page financially. We didn't actually talk about parenting strategies much. In navigating our relationship, we fought way more than I want to admit. Blaine: Yeah, we did fight. But I think our commitment to God and our commitment to each other really anchored us and kept us afloat. Audrey: I feel like one of the most important things, like hanging on to faith, is that it kept us from expecting the other person to fill every hole in our lives. Like, we understood at least that much that there were certain spiritual needs and other needs that God could only meet for us or that we could only meet for ourselves. I think there was a little bit of understanding of that. I don't remember us having arguments about, "Well, it's your fault," this or that. But on the other hand, when we felt rotten, it was easy to blame each other. Like, "You're the reason I feel rotten," or, "Our finances are the reason," or, "Extended family is the reason." Blaine: And I was kind of fragile because of my ego. So you would bring up finances and I'd blow up because I was embarrassed that I wasn't taking better care of you and the family. We didn't have more money and more things. And that was tough for me. And it was tough for you because then there was an argument. You're like, "Why do you always blow up? We're just trying to have a conversation." Audrey: Yeah. And then I would cry, and then I would want to blame you, and sometimes I would. I didn't have any idea how I was contributing or what it was that I could do about it or the different perception changes that I could have. Looking back and kind of being in that moment again with you, the best way I know how to describe it is really just feeling so powerless. Like, I go to church, I say my prayers, I live a good life, I do good things, I followed the prescription of marry and have kids, and now this was my dream, but it doesn't feel like I'm living in my dream. It just feels messy and confusing and hard, and I just didn't have good tools to know how to see it differently and be different myself.   The Wake-Up Call Audrey: The big moment, the wake-up call, we would probably both say is... Blaine: When you slapped me. Audrey: Yeah.

    47 min

  5. Jun 2

    EP 157 They Didn't Have a Plan. They Just Said Yes.

    Resources Mentioned in the Episode:  Free Training - How to Stop Feeling Powerless & Become the Expert in Your Own Life The Mission Driven Mom Academy Over the last month, I've been sharing stories from some of the women inside MDM Academy. These are not women who had more figured out than you do.  They didn't start with extra money, extra time, or some kind of unshakeable certainty. They started exactly where a lot of us are, with a feeling they couldn't quite name, a family they were trying to show up for, and a quiet little voice in the back of their head whispering, is this really it for me? They just said yes to the next small step in front of them. Today's episode is all three of their stories woven together, because I think together they say something none of them could say alone. You're going to hear from Karen, who felt called to serve orphaned teenagers in Mexico, talked herself out of it for years, and then one day got an email from her husband with the subject line: it's time to go. She sold her house. Sold her stuff. Moved her whole family to the jungle. And she is building something I believe is going to change a lot of lives. Then you'll hear from Lindsay, our head mentor inside MDM, who came to this work feeling completely lost, despite having accomplished every goal she had ever set for herself. A mom of five who had done everything right and still felt like she was floundering. What she found here changed not just her own life, but the way she leads her family, her homeschool, and her church. And then there's Brenda. A community builder who has spent decades watching what happens when women stop trying to do it all alone. She has brought her kids across the country, started schools, coached founders, and will tell you with the most joyful, completely matter-of-fact energy that together, there is nothing we cannot do. These are your people, friend.   AI Generated Transcript Introduction   Welcome to today's podcast. I'm Audrey Rindlisbacher, and I wanna tell you something before we get into today's podcast. Over the last month, we shared several interviews with some of our MDM Academy members. Inspiring stories about the impact that doing this work has had on their lives and their families and the world around them. The women you're about to hear from are not extraordinary in the way we usually mean that word. They did not start with more money or more time or more resources or more certainty than you have right now. They started exactly where you are, with a pull towards something they could not quite name, a family they were trying to show up for, and a quiet voice in the back of their minds. Is this it? Is this what's here for me? And they said yes to that next small thing, and then the next one, and then the one after that. And today I'm bringing you the highlights of these three conversations stitched together into one episode because I think together they tell a story that none of them could tell alone. You're gonna hear from Karen, who felt called to serve orphaned teenagers in Mexico, dismissed the idea for years, and then one day got an email from her husband with the subject line, "It's time to go." She sold her house, sold her stuff, moved her family to the jungle, and is now building something that I believe is going to change a lot of lives. Then you're gonna hear from Lindsay, our head mentor inside MDM Academy, who came to this work feeling like she was floundering. A mother of five who had accomplished every goal she had set for herself and still felt lost. What she found here changed not just her own life, but the way she leads her family, her homeschool community, and in her church. And then you're going to hear from Brenda, a community builder who has spent decades watching what happens when women stop trying to do it alone. She's dragged her kids across the country, started schools, coached founders, and will tell you in the most joyful matter-of-fact way that together there's nothing we cannot do. These are your people, my friend. I'm excited for you to listen.   Part One: Karen — "It's Time to Go" Karen And then that was the last I heard of him. I did hear that he did end up at one of the centers. But it was more and more kids like this that would contact me. I'd find out what they were doing, and I just thought if we could be in Mexico, like we could do something for them. Like from out here, I feel like we can... I mean, we did some fundraisers to try to find things that the orphanage needed. But what they — I felt they needed most was to be heard, to have these opportunities to pursue the interests they had, and to make an impact for good. They really, like all the ones I met, really wanted to just make the world better. They wanted to break these cycles. They didn't wanna be the same kind of people that their parents were. Oftentimes they were in these orphanages because their parents were in addictions, and they couldn't take care of them. They wanted something better and different. But often when they would go back out into the world, that's what they knew. They didn't really know how to do things in a different way, so they would go back to these patterns. And I thought, in my heart, I thought if we could just live in Mexico. But whenever I would bring it up to my family, they were like, "Well, that's impossible. You know, my husband's job is in the United States, and he likes it, and he can't work remotely. He's a therapist, so that's a hands-on thing, and we have a life here." And so it just seemed like an impossible thing, but it would come into my mind every once in a while. We could do so much more if we could provide something there, because obviously we can't bring them to us — as much as I would like that. I did look into adoption a few times, and that was really difficult for Mexico. And it wasn't gonna make the impact for all of the kids that I want to make. And so I think that drive home, that prayer, that sincere prayer just started something. I can't even explain exactly what it was, but because it was so sincere, something happened that just made the ball start rolling in a direction where this would be possible. As I was looking into options of what to do, I thought maybe we could go sometimes in the summer. That's what we started doing — creating different programs, figuring out ways to help these kids. And every once in a while I would say, "But if we lived in Mexico," and they're like, "Oh, here you go again." And so I kinda just stopped at that. And then one day out of nowhere — this was a huge surprise to me — my husband sends me this email and the subject line said, "It's time to go." And so I started reading it and he said, "I've been praying about this, and if this is something that means this much to you and that you really wanna try, then we should just go and try it as a family. Let's just all go and see what we can do." And so that was a huge miracle, 'cause that was so unexpected. And so he decided to take that leap, and we just sold our home and sold our stuff and we went to a couple internships first. So we did an internship in one orphanage in Tijuana, another one in that same orphanage that we often visited, and then we moved — which is where we bought land. So we had bought the land a year earlier after deciding to do this, planning to move out there. Audrey All right, incredible stuff. What Karen just described — that moment of offering herself to God with no plan, no guarantee, and no roadmap — that is not a rare thing. I've watched it happen over and over again in the lives of women who have done this work. But here's what I want you to notice. It didn't start with mission. It started with Karen working on herself, reading, learning, asking harder questions, sitting with the discomfort of a calling she wasn't sure she was ready for. The mission was the fruit of the inner work, not the starting point. And that's exactly what you're gonna hear from Lindsay next. Lindsay came to The Mission Driven Mom not because she had a vision for her community or a project she wanted to launch. She came because she was floundering. She had everything she had set out to accomplish — she had accomplished it — and she still didn't know who she was or where she was going next. And what happened, what the work of learning to think differently did to her relationships, her courage, and her ability to lead — I think it's actually really gonna resonate with you. So I'm excited for you to listen to this next part.   Part Two: Lindsay — From Floundering to Found Lindsay But I did feel — I did feel like I was floundering a little bit. And you've talked about this before, and I resonate with it, that you get lost a little bit in the motherhood. It's consuming. It's often thankless, although everybody appreciates the mother — they don't always say it. But I just remembered just floundering, I think would be the word. Just not knowing what to do, where to spend my time, and feeling a little lost, and maybe even a little bit depressed. I just didn't know, okay, where do I go from here? And joining the MDM community, going through Level One — you're putting yourself together. You're making your physical needs a priority. You're making your mental needs a priority. You're studying, you're learning. That intellectual stimulation really is meaningful and gives life a lot of meaning, as you're learning, as you're making friends and discussing things, and putting your spiritual house in order. And then one of my favorite parts of Level One is just the self-discovery. So learning what am I good at? What are my natural strengths? And how can I develop them? I remember when we were learning about the drama triangle, and that was such a paradigm shift for me — just to have the words for it. That creator is the opposite of victim. And I didn't necessarily think that I was a victim. I didn

    15 min

  6. May 26

    Ep 156 Mission Driven Story: Corrie Ten Boom

    Resources Mentioned in Episode:  The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom The Mission Driven Life by Audrey Rindlisbacher Visit TheMissionDrivenMom.com to download the free audio book of The Mission Driven Life   I want to tell you about a woman who changed my life. Her name was Corrie Ten Boom. And since I read her story for the first time in The Hiding Place, my life has never been the same. She was a fifty-year-old watchmaker in Holland when the German occupation began. Ordinary in almost every way. Small income. Simple life. No influence and no power And yet, she and her family saved the lives of over 800 Jews during World War II. When I knew all she and her family had sacrificed for absolute strangers, I wanted to know: "How do you build a family like that? How do you become the kind of person who, when the moment comes, risks everything to do what is right?” The answer, I've come to believe, is that Corrie wasn't trying to be a hero. She was just trying to be faithful. She loved God. She governed her heart and her mind. She learned to live by principle. She served the people right in front of her. And it multiplied into something that, eventually, the whole world felt. On this week's episode, I walk through Corrie's life. I demonstrate how she lived every single one of the 7 Laws of Life Mission, quietly and faithfully, long before the war ever came to her door. Here's a little of what you'll hear: The prayer she whispered in a stranger's living room that set everything in motion How she became the first licensed female watchmaker in Holland, and what that has to do with self-discovery The moment she used a Dale Carnegie principle to save her sister's life Why her story is proof that ordinary women can do extraordinary things This story is one of my favorites.   AI Generated Transcript The Mission-Driven Story of Corrie Ten Boom Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Audrey Rindlisbacher, author of The Mission Driven Life, founder of The Mission Driven Mom, and we get to do something really fun today, which I thought certainly we had done before, but I looked through the podcast, and we have not done it. We're going to do a mission-driven story of Corrie Ten Boom, a woman who absolutely changed my life. Reading The Hiding Place for the first time really was a total game changer for me. It shifted my mindset. It changed the way I thought about myself and my family and my life, changed my goal sets. It was really profound, and today, we're just going to touch on the life of Corrie Ten Boom as she lives those Seven Laws of Life Mission. We haven't done this for a little bit, so I'm super excited to get started. All right. Here's how I want to start, with a story that's really profound about her. A Story of Bravery: Corrie Ten Boom and the Jewish FamilyNear the beginning of the German occupation of Holland during World War II, Corrie Ten Boom, a 50-year-old spinster, was visiting Jewish friends. In the middle of their discussion, the children called from upstairs for their father to put them to bed. He quickly excused himself, and Corrie could hear their romping play and laughter. As she listened, reflecting on the deep love that was present in their home, a realization suddenly struck her with intense force. This family was in grave danger. More and more frequently, Jews were going missing from their homes and jobs, but now she awoke to the fact that this family, her dear friends, could be next. At any moment, the Gestapo could knock on this door, raid the house, and separate the family forever. With this awareness came an overwhelming sadness and an anxious desire to help. As she waited in their living room, she wondered what she could possibly do. Her life was simple, her income was small, and her resources were few. She felt she had little to give, yet she was willing to do what she could. In that moment of great bravery and generosity, she said a silent prayer and offered up all she had. "Lord, I offer myself for your people in any way, any place, any time." This family saved the lives of over 800 Jews during World War II voluntarily, when most of the people around them did not. They found out about the resistance, they joined, and they risked their lives and eventually gave their lives to save the lives of strangers. And what I wanted to know when I first read The Hiding Place was, how do you build a family like that? How do you build a life like that? How do you build a character like that, to be the person who would be different than all the people around you? I can't judge anybody that was there because I've never been through anything like that, and I genuinely don't know what I would do. But I wanted to be like the Ten Booms. I wanted to be the family, the individual, the mother, the woman that would welcome people into my home at the risk of my own life. And they eventually did. Many of the family members did give their lives for complete strangers. So I want to go through the life of Corrie Ten Boom and just touch on the Seven Laws of Life Mission and walk you through that path that the greats have followed to become the men and women who did change the world. Corrie wasn't out to change the world. Corrie was just trying to be the best woman she could be. She was trying to listen to her conscience and live by principle and follow God and His mandates and serve her fellow brothers and sisters on earth. And yet in that pursuit, their family became world famous and has changed the lives of millions of people, including me. So let's touch on these Seven Laws of Life Mission today through the lens of the life of Corrie Ten Boom and talk about some of her stories. And I'll give you some resources when we're done for how you can continue to learn more, because she's incredible. She was born in Amsterdam, Holland, on April 15th, 1892. And I want to just go through and tell you some stories from each of these times in her life about how she lived each of these laws.   Law One: Love God by Establishing Your Divine Center So Law One, of course, is to love God by establishing your divine center. And she definitely was someone who, from childhood forward, established her divine center in God. She said, "Love for the Jews was spoon-fed to me from my very youngest years." Daily prayer for the Jews began when Willem Ten Boom, her great-grandfather, started having daily prayers in their home for the Jews in 1844, and continued for three generations. For 100 years, until 1944 when they were arrested and put in concentration camps, they prayed every day. Not surprisingly, Corrie stated, "As a result, deep respect and love for the Jews became part of our home life." They knew that praying wasn't enough, though, and as Corrie herself later taught, "We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God's work on behalf of the people for whom we pray." So from the time that she was little, she was taught that prayer was vital, that she needed to read scripture daily, say prayers daily, and to be willing to do whatever God asked her to do. Her father, Casper, came downstairs every morning at 8:10 and gathered his family around him all the way through her twenties, her thirties, her forties, her fifties, because she never married and always lived at home. And they read scripture and prayed together every single morning.   Growing Up: Learning to Love God I want to tell you a couple of stories from Corrie's growing up years, experiences that she had that helped her better learn to love God. One day when she was disobedient in school and was sent to the headmaster's office, instead of going there, she ducked into a closet and waited hours for school to end. She was certain that she would be dismissed from the school and had no idea what she should do. She believed it would disgrace her father, as he had helped to found the school. When she heard the bell ring, she made for home as quickly as her legs would take her. Once there, she poured out her heart to her sister, Nollie. She told her everything. Then Nollie suggested that Corrie pray and ask for forgiveness. This was already a clear indication that at a young age, these girls had been taught key spiritual truths well and knew the importance of heeding them. Since forgiveness had been asked, Nollie had another idea that might help. She remembered her father's scripture reading and excitedly asked Corrie, "Do you remember that boring Psalm that Papa read at the table, where every sixth or seventh verse were the same words?" She quoted Psalms 107: "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distress." She said, "Why couldn't we do the same?" And so they did. The young schoolgirls, taking their father's words and example to heart and crying unto the Lord, fell asleep comforted. The next day, to her joy and great relief, Corrie met the headmaster, who only gave her a slight reprimand and sent her back to class. So when they were in trouble as young schoolgirls, they used spiritual principles and tapped into God's grace to help them overcome this problem that they had in school. So amazing.   First Love: Putting God's Will First When she was a bit older and she fell in love for the first time, this was an experience where she also had to learn to put God's will first in her life. During her high school years, a visit to her older brother in college led to a chance meeting with a friend of his named Karel. She was immediately captivated. Happily, Karel showed interest in return, and though they saw each other rarely, each time they met, the relationship deepened. After spending the day together at her brother's wedding, Corrie felt there was hope for a future with Karel. Months later, they connected again, walking and talking day after day, until, "Suddenly we were

    26 min

  7. May 18

    EP 155 My Birthday Dream for You

    Resources Mentioned in Episode: Mothers of Creation - Join us September 26th in Provo, Utah | Use coupon code MOTHER at checkout to receive $50 OFF | Expires at midnight on Monday, 5/18   It's my birthday today. And every year, since it falls right around Mother's Day, this ends up being one of the most self-reflective times of year for me. So today I want to tell you a story. My story. I grew up in a home full of love, but books weren't part of our culture.  I made it through twelve years of public school without ever hearing of Anne of Green Gables, the Little House series, or Narnia. And then my senior year, I got a teacher who actually wanted to make me think.  We read The Brothers Karamazov, and that book cracked something open in me that I didn't even know was closed. It took almost ten more years (and three babies) before I found the kind of education that asked the right question. Not what did you learn but how is this supposed to change you? That question changed everything. On this week's episode I share all of it: where I came from, what I was missing, and the dream I carry for every mom who finds her way to this work. Here's a little of what you'll hear: The one teacher who finally asked me the right question  Why working on yourself is the least selfish thing you can do for your children The dream I hold for our culture and what becomes possible when moms start thinking differently I invite you to listen to this episode. I’ve never shared this part of my journey and I hope it resonates with something inside you.   AI Generated Transcript It's My Birthday, and I Have a Dream I Need to Tell You About It's my birthday today. And every year it lands right around Mother's Day, so this time of year tends to make me really reflective. I find myself thinking about where I've been, where I'm going, and what I really want for the women in my life -- including you. I want to tell you a story today. A personal one. And then I want to share a dream with you -- a dream I've been carrying for a long time.   I Was a Decent Student Who Asked All the Wrong Questions All growing up, I was a pretty decent student. I didn't love school, but it was just part of the reality around me. It was the world I lived in. It was what everybody did. You get up in the morning, you go to school, you do the homework, you pass the test. That's just the nature of reality, right? By the time I got to high school, though, I was pretty disenchanted by the whole experience. I started asking the questions that so many of us ask: Why in the world do I need to study calculus? Who cares what year the French and Indian War started? Why does Hamlet matter so much? And I did what everybody does. I kept going. I kept doing the work so I could get into a good college, because somewhere along the way I'd come to believe that college was the real goal of it all. That's where education got good. That's where learning was actually fun. And then my senior year, something happened.   The Teacher Who Changed Everything I got a teacher who was different from any other teacher I'd ever had. He wanted to make us think. And he cared about what I thought. It was the first time in my 12 years of public education that I began to ask the right question -- how my learning was supposed to change me. We read The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and that book changed my life. I know that might sound dramatic, but you have to understand where I came from. My father grew up in a tiny town with a graduating class of 10 people. He went to one semester of college, then came home and married his high school sweetheart. After five children and about 11 years, when their marriage was failing, he met my mom. My mom also came from a small town. Her father was an alcoholic who had abandoned the family, and she had one sibling -- a sister who was schizophrenic. She, her mother, and her sister scraped by all growing up. They cooked on a wood-burning stove in the 1960s. My grandmother never even learned to drive. When my parents married and had five more children together -- I'm the oldest of that group -- with no good income-earning skills and a growing family to provide for, we struggled financially, especially when I was young. Now, I want to be clear about something. There was a lot of love in my home. I never thought of myself as poor or going without things. My older siblings from my dad's first marriage visited every summer, and I always looked forward to seeing them. But the net result of all of it -- the backgrounds of my parents, the circumstances we were in -- was that lifelong learning, self-education, and reading were simply not part of the culture in our house. I knew my mom sometimes read romance novels. My dad would occasionally mention a sales or self-help guru he was following. But I don't remember there being very many books in our home at all.   I Didn't Even Know Anne of Green Gables Was a Book In college, the Anne of Green Gables series was released, and my girlfriends gathered for a sleepover to binge-watch them all night. It was only at that sleepover that I even heard of Anne of Green Gables. I had no frame of reference for that whole experience. I had never heard of or read the Little House books. I thought it was a TV show. I had never heard of the Narnia series. These were books that were left out of the public school program, so I was never introduced to them. And that is why, when I read The Brothers Karamazov, it hit me so hard. I didn't know that books like this existed. Books that spoke to the deepest parts of me. Books that discussed the most important questions of life. Books about people who were seeking truth, grappling with real temptations and real struggles. I had no idea the impact that true classics could have on a person. I didn't know they could help me understand myself, build my character, or become better. It was honestly pretty magical. And the only thing that had ever spoken to me in that same way before was scripture.   Thirty Years Old, Three Babies, and Just Getting Started After high school, it took me almost ten years to discover liberal arts education. There I was, 30 years old with three babies in tow, just getting started on my real education. But it didn't matter. Because I knew it could give me what The Brothers Karamazov had given me: truth, virtue, beauty, character, and deep personal growth. So that's my story. And here's my dream.   My Dream for You (and for All of Us) My dream is that every mother and every woman would have what I received. You and I both know that our culture is declining. We see it in the media, in our educational programs, even in our leaders -- things moving further and further away from what is right and true and good. We worry about our children. We worry about the future. And so many of us feel powerless to change any of it. Who am I? I can't tell you how many times I've asked myself that. I'm just one person. Just a stay-at-home mom. Just a working mom. Just a single mom doing her best to hold everything together. I can't fix the world. I can't even fix dinner. But here's the irony. When we work on ourselves, we make our culture better. Because we raise the next generation, and they are watching us every single day. Who we are, who we are becoming, and the example we are setting -- it means everything to them. And to our culture. And the best part? We don't have to do this alone. We can link arms and lift ourselves and lift our families, and that will lift the culture.   What We Were Never Taught (and Why It Matters So Much) Here's what I know. You and I did not get the education that empowers us to discern and live by truth. We were not taught how to take the best works ever written and harness their lessons for our lives. We didn't receive the training we deserve -- to be self-educating for life, to know what to read and how to read it, how to discern truth in our culture, and how to be changed for the better by it. We weren't taught the tools for understanding and practicing principles. And that deficiency in our education -- that gap in our ability to meet our real mental and spiritual needs -- is a huge roadblock in our personal growth. It makes it harder to lead ourselves and our families with confidence and clarity and purpose. So my dream is that every woman and mother will learn how to think differently. Because when we think differently, our beliefs change. And when our beliefs change, everything changes. My dream is that our families will be strengthened and our communities will be blessed. That there will be more truth and goodness in the world because of our presence in it -- as mission-driven women who know how to harness truth to heal ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world.   Come Spend the Day With Me This September So please join me. Please take your education and your personal growth more seriously. Please link arms with us in making the world a better place. I know we can do it -- one mother, one woman at a time. And if you're ready to start, I'd love to invite you to spend the day with me this September in Utah at our Mothers of Creation conference. You will be surrounded by women just like you -- on this same mission to develop themselves and link arms in lifting our culture. You will leave with renewed hope and excitement, not just for your own future, but for the future of our nation and our world. You'll walk away with real skills, tools, and principles for putting your own life in better order. And I promise you will leave empowered with clarity about your next steps -- and new friends to walk the path with you. As my birthday present to you, I'm offering $50 off -- but only through tonight. The link is in the description. Thank you for being here. Thank you for caring. I'll see you next time.

    9 min

  8. May 12

    EP 154 From Floundering to Finding Herself

    Resources mentioned in the episode: Mothers of Creation, Provo, Utah - September 26th Encore Training: How to Stop Feeling Powerless and Become the Expert in Your Own Life   I want to introduce you to Lindsey. She's a mother of five, a homeschooler, and one of the most principled women I know. But when she first came to MDM, she described herself the same way so many of us do. Floundering. A little lost. A little depressed. She had accomplished everything she had set out to do and then stood there wondering, okay, now what? On this week's episode, Lindsey shares what changed for her. And I think you're going to hear yourself in her story. Here's a little of what she talks about: The moment she learned the difference between a victim and a creator, and realized, uncomfortably, which one she had been How she went from avoiding hard conversations to having them with clarity and courage What happened in her relationship with her oldest daughter when she stopped expecting her to be just like her Why she says MDM helped her get her heart and her mind to finally talk to each other What it felt like to walk into a room of women who actually understood her and say for the first time, I found my people That last one is so incredibly precious. Because I know how rare it is. And I know how much it changes everything when you finally have it. Come listen. Because Lindsey's story is the kind that can shift something inside you.   AI Generated Transcript Audrey: Welcome back to the podcast. I am Audrey Rindlisbacher, author of The Mission- Driven Life and founder of the Mission-Driven Mom. And like I have been talking about, we are hearing from some women who are going to share their experiences with learning to better love themselves and God, and the impact that had on their relationships, their community immediately around them, and the larger community around them. Audrey: Today, we have Lindsay Wright, who it is an honor to know. For those of you that get involved or have been involved in MDM, she is a mentor for us, head mentor, and she helps train the mentors. She is incredible, but she had her own journey with these principles, like we all do. And so we are going to begin at the beginning with her story and have her start by talking to us about who she is. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Lindsay, and then where you were at before MDM.   Lindsay's Background and Early Motherhood Lindsay: Sure. Thanks for letting me be on the podcast. I love the opportunity. It is hard to remember what life was like before, so I am a mother of five. My oldest is almost twenty-four. And then my youngest is twelve. And you have talked about this a lot, too, in those early days of motherhood, when they were all young. I loved it. That was my dream job, to be a mother. In fact, I had some big goals for life. I wanted to be a mom, I wanted a college degree. I had those big goals, and I had accomplished all of them by the time I was in my twenties. After that, you are in the thick of mothering, which is fantastic. But I did feel like I was floundering a little bit. And you have talked about this before, and I resonate with it, that you get lost a little bit in motherhood. It is consuming, and it is often thankless, although everybody appreciates the mother. They do not always say it. But I just remember floundering, I think that would be the word. Just not knowing what to do or where to spend my time and feeling a little lost. Maybe even a little bit depressed. I just did not know, okay, where do I go from here? Discovering MDM and Level One Lindsay: Joining the MDM community and going through Level One changed that dramatically. In Level One, it starts with the idea of natural law, like these principles that there is truth and that we can know it, and that we can use it to make the changes that we want to make and to know what those changes even are. And so in Level One, you are putting yourself together. You are making your physical needs a priority. You are making your mental needs a priority. You are studying; you are learning. That intellectual stimulation really is meaningful and gives life a lot of meaning as you are learning, as you are making friends and discussing things, and putting your spiritual house in order. And then one of my favorite parts of Level One is just the self-discovery. So learning, what am I good at? What are my natural strengths? How can I develop them? How can I use them to help other people, like we said, to influence the culture for good? It was just life-changing.   The Drama Triangle Audrey: So, can you give us a specific story, or event, or principle that you feel like made a difference for you? Lindsay: I remember when we were learning about the drama triangle. That was such a paradigm shift for me, just to have the words for it. That creator is the opposite of a victim. And I did not necessarily think that I was a victim. I did not think that I was steeped in a victim mentality. But I was in the middle of some big drama at the time, and it was so helpful to see the different roles that were being played and the different roles I was playing in the drama cycle. And to know what to do to change that. So that was a big deal. And I am still learning. I am still working on it. There are still multiple subtle ways that we show up in this victim orientation every day. And so I am super excited. I have been diving deep into different ways of being a victim, and it has been fun to just get more depth in my understanding of the drama cycle and how to be a creator. Audrey: Lindsay has been mentoring our Mothers of Creation group. When you get a ticket to the event this fall, then you are in an online community with us, and she is mentoring that group. And so it has really been a lot of deep diving into those principles and phenomenal concepts being talked about. So that has been awesome.   Communing with Yourself and God Audrey: This idea of the root word of "commune" and what it means to commune better with ourselves, to commune better with God, to have better communication with ourselves and with God, and then the extension of having better communication and community around us. So before we head into the community piece, I am curious, first of all, how do you feel like your relationship with yourself transformed? How did that communing and that better communication, the principles that we work on at MDM, what can you articulate about the change in yourself? Lindsay: I think for me it has been a journey of getting my heart and my mind to talk to each other. Audrey: What do you mean by that? Lindsay: Our heart is where our values are. That is where we feel things. That is where we have desire and motivation. And then in our mind is the logic and the reason and all those things that we associate with the intellectual life. And I have always been very much in my mind, very intellectual. That is just how I approached the world. Give me a book, tell me what to do, so I can know what to do. And through the academy, I am learning, and I am still learning, how to tap more into the heart, how to tap more into my values. Like, I know what my values are. But how do I pay attention to those feelings? How do we know we are in drama? It starts with a feeling. How do we relate with people? It starts with the heart. And for me, it is that communication between the heart and mind that is a better way to approach life, with both of them being active instead of just the one. Audrey: Fascinating. So would you say that part of that process has been to align your thoughts more with who you really are or what you really value? Lindsay: Yeah, for sure. Like I said, we get to know ourselves on a deeper level in Level One. And so understanding my unique strengths and also the strengths of others, because we are not the same. And I think sometimes in the past I had thought my way is the best way, and I expected everybody to be like me. And so now I have this greater appreciation that I really appreciate when people are not like me, because they bring balance to me. They fill in the gaps for me. And so I really love that we have these different, unique strengths. Also, this idea that we can see these strengths. I think I had seen some of my strengths as weaknesses, or I just had not understood them. Why am I this way? Why do I do this, and why does it cause problems? And so really, on both sides of that coin, learning to see myself differently is definitely helping my heart and my mind to align better. But also, my heart to somebody else's heart is more in line because I feel like I can see myself more clearly, and I am learning to see others more clearly. Audrey: So, how does it help you see others more clearly? How has the development of your relationship with yourself and these principles that you have learned, how has that bled over into your other relationships? Lindsay: Part of it is that I do not expect others to be like me, like I said. So simple, but so profound. And I want to add that it is not just, I think a lot of us might say that truth, and I think people listening might be like, “Yeah, of course.” But there is something very profound and permanent that happens when you actually understand the ways that we are different. You do not expect them to be like you because you understand truly, deeply that there are different ways for other people to fundamentally be, and that there is value in that, and that it is important that they are that way. So often, we take our way of being, and we think it is the only way, the right way, because it works for us, and we elevate our applications to the level of principle. And then we start judging other people because we are saying, oh, they are not living the principle. And actually, it is just a different application. And as I learned to see myself clearly, then I can start to see that difference in application. I can see where we are

    37 min
See All (161)

5
out of 5
59 Ratings

About

For moms and women who want to increase their confidence, and discover and develop their unique gifts, while strengthening themselves and their families. *Over 50 5-Star Reviews*

Information

  • Creator
    Audrey Rindlisbacher
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    161
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Copyright 2025 The Mission Driven Mom Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Mission Driven Mom Podcast

You Might Also Like