The Intentional Parents Podcast

Intentional
Intentional
  • 4.9 (1.6K)
  • Christianity
  • Weekly

In a world where distractions are endless and culture constantly pulls us in different directions, it’s more important than ever to remain intentional in your marriage and parenting. Brook and Elizabeth Mosser, alongside Phil and Diane Comer, invite you into a conversation about biblical formation — offering wisdom, encouragement, and practical tools for raising passionate Jesus followers. As an intergenerational team that is also family, we bridge the perspectives of different life stages, drawing from both decades-long experience and fresh insight on the topics of parenting and marriage. From vulnerable Q+R sessions to insightful guest interviews, we explore real-life stories of both steady formation and radical transformation — unpacking how God is shaping our lives and the lives of those around us. Join us each week as we pursue God’s design for life, marriage, and parenting — with intention.

  1. 18h ago

    Parenting with ADHD, Rebuilding After Trauma, Hope After Disappointment + Pursuing Mentorship (Q+R)

    In this episode, we respond to the questions you’ve sent in, covering parenting with ADHD, building a healthy family culture after childhood trauma, holding onto hope through unanswered prayer, and pursuing mentorship in unique ways. Before we get into them, we share an update on Elizabeth’s chronic back pain and how that affects all areas of our family’s life. First, we talk about parenting when one or both spouses have ADHD or other neurodivergent traits. Shame is a common response, so notice where it shows up. Because we serve a God of redemption, you can parent your kids differently than you were parented. We also discuss having a shame-free conversation with your spouse, including how to tactfully and graciously bring up a possible diagnosis. Next, we address building healthy family cultures after experiencing childhood trauma. Every family has generational patterns to heal from, so find good models and get comfortable with unlearning and relearning, even when it means slowing down. We then talk about holding onto hope after disappointment and unanswered prayer. Rather than jumping straight to “God’s got this,” we look at how honest lament is modeled throughout the Psalms and share three practices: lament honestly, choose to remember God’s faithfulness, and choose to trust Him, even when that trust feels small. We also reflect on what childlike trust looks like and the reminder that we aren’t entitled to the life we think we deserve. Finally, we share our own experience with mentorship and encourage you to let go of the idea that it has to be formal. Be willing to ask, let it look different than you expected, filter through generational gaps, and remember that books can mentor you too. Scripture Mentioned: Matthew 6:34, Psalm 103:8, Psalm 22:1, Mark 9:24 + Psalm 131 Book Mentioned: God on Mute by Pete Greig Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is now available for purchase! Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional. Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Intentional Marriage Retreat: May 14-15 (SOLD OUT) + 21-22, 2027 Ask Intentional is Here: Your Questions, Our Entire Podcast Library Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to hello@intentionalparents.org, mentioning your name and where you’re from. Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition Join Our Legacy Builders Watch on YouTube Follow Us on Instagram:  @intentional_parents  @brookmosser @emosser FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF FREE Text Message Daily Devotional Raising Passionate Jesus Followers The Intentional Film Series

    Parenting with ADHD, Rebuilding After Trauma, Hope After Disappointment + Pursuing Mentorship (Q+R)

  2. Oct 28

    Raising Daughters: What Your Daughter Hears When You Talk About Your Body

    In this second part of our conversation on raising daughters, we remember that we don’t teach our daughters from a place of having it all figured out. More often, they hold up a mirror to the places where we’re still being formed. Raising daughters can also mean reflecting on what our own mothers were unable to give us, a journey that involves forgiveness and a desire to offer something different. This episode explores two big areas: teaching her a healthy view of her body and helping her navigate friendships. We begin with body image and the generational patterns that can get passed down in families. Many of us were shaped by culture’s message about what women should look like, and social media has only intensified that pressure for our daughters, which is why staying involved matters. Elizabeth shares her own story of struggling with body image and disordered eating through childhood and young adulthood, and how she brought her family into the healing process. She put a stake in the ground: this will not touch my daughters. The big idea is to be mindful of how you talk about food, your body, and your appearance, because it shapes how your daughter sees herself. It isn’t wrong for her to want to feel beautiful, and as our bodies keep changing, we can model embracing aging well. We also need to notice when our own values or vanity are being projected onto our daughters, whether they care too much about appearance or less than we’d like. As 1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. From there, we turn to friendships. Drawing on The Anxious Generation, we talk about how so much of friendship now happens on a screen rather than face to face, which means parents have to step in as relational coaches. A few things to keep in mind: Teach her about envy. Someone else’s beauty, talent, or gifting is not a threat, and another person’s success is not her failure.Teach her about differences. Her friends don’t have to be just like her. We’re all uniquely made in the image of God.Teach her about commitment. In a time when it’s easy to ghost people or not show up, teach her to stay faithful and ask good questions.Women often hold the relational fabric of a community together, and our daughters can learn to lead with everything they truly are, strengths and limitations alike. Scripture Mentioned: 1 Samuel 16:7 Book Mentioned: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt Previous Episodes Mentioned: Raising Daughters: Preparing Ourselves to Prepare Our Girls (YouTube, Spotify + Apple Podcasts) + Purity Culture: The History, the Harm + the Hope (YouTube, Spotify + Apple Podcasts) Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is now available for purchase! Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional. Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Intentional Marriage Retreat: May 14-15 (SOLD OUT) + 21-22, 2027 Ask Intentional is Here: Your Questions, Our Entire Podcast Library Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to hello@intentionalparents.org, mentioning your name and where you’re from. Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition Join Our Legacy Builders Watch on YouTube Follow Us on Instagram:  @intentional_parents  @brookmosser @emosser FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF FREE Text Message Daily Devotional Raising Passionate Jesus Followers The Intentional Film Series

    Raising Daughters: What Your Daughter Hears When You Talk About Your Body

  3. Oct 20

    When the World Feels Unsafe: How to Navigate Fear, Grief and Tragedy

    This is a special, last-minute episode and an important one. In the wake of the Silver Rails shooting in our hometown of Bend, we sat down with our dear friend and therapist Sally Lemos, MS, LPC to talk about what to do when tragedy strikes close to home. Moments like this bring up our deepest fears as parents, and Sally shares biblical, therapeutic, and psychological wisdom for caring for ourselves and our kids. While this conversation was prompted by Silver Rails, it applies to any tragedy your family may face, big or small. We start with caring for yourself first, because we can’t offer comfort unless we’re in a place of comfort ourselves (2 Corinthians 1:3–7). Our kids don’t need parents who are never afraid or who shield them from all pain; they need parents who show them what to do when fear comes. From there, Sally walks through how to start the conversation without forcing it: leading with curiosity, listening more than explaining, and remembering that silence doesn’t mean an absence of emotion. We also talk about helping kids feel safe without dismissing their fears, looking to the story of Lazarus in John 11, and about practical tools like returning to family rhythms and watching for signs that a child may need outside support. Finally, we explore how grief and hope can be held together, which is the story of the whole Bible, and why becoming a safe space matters so much, especially since we’re all going to mess up. We close with Helen Mallicoat’s beautiful poem “I Am,” a reminder that He is with us in our present pain. Navigating Tragedy PDF: www.intentionalparents.org/resources#tragedy Scripture Mentioned: 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, John 11:1-44 + John 16:33 Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is currently available as our thank you gift to Legacy Builders, Intentional’s monthly giving community. Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional. Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to hello@intentionalparents.org, mentioning your name and where you’re from. Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition Join Our Legacy Builders Watch on YouTube Follow Us on Instagram:  @intentional_parents  @brookmosser @emosser FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF FREE Text Message Daily Devotional Raising Passionate Jesus Followers The Intentional Film Series

    When the World Feels Unsafe: How to Navigate Fear, Grief and Tragedy

  4. Oct 14

    Raising Daughters: Preparing Ourselves to Prepare Our Girls

    What do we actually want our girls to know about being a woman? Join us for a conversation between Elizabeth and Diane, where we draw on our experience raising daughters to explore what God needs to form in us first so we can pass it on to them. We look at what Scripture says a woman is and share what we wish we’d done differently. We push back on the lie that there’s one right way to be a woman, and talk about coming alongside our daughters rather than telling them who to be. That begins with two foundations: becoming aware of our own woundedness, and listening to the Spirit, who knows our daughters better than any parenting book or Instagram reel ever could. From there, we begin walking through three things to teach our daughters. The first is her design. From Genesis 1–3, we unpack the idea of the “ezer” and the woman as a giver of life. Even if she never marries, she is an ezer, and even if she never becomes a mother, she is a giver of life. That identity in Christ doesn’t change. The second is to have a voice and use it with wisdom. Her voice matters, she doesn’t have to stay silent, and she can speak with graciousness. The third is a healthy theology of work. We add context to the Proverbs 31 woman, a passage often used to pressure women, and point out that women have always worked, though rarely without a village around them. We want to give our daughters the freedom to pursue hobbies, passions, and careers, and to be honest with them that work and motherhood collide in messy ways. God cares more about our formation than about labels like stay-at-home mom or successful career woman. This conversation was so rich and full that we’re saving the last two points for a part two, coming soon. Scripture Mentioned: Genesis 1–3, Proverbs 18:21, Proverbs 21:9 + Proverbs 31 Book Mentioned: Hearing God by Dallas Willard Previous Podcast Episode Mentioned: Walking With Kids Through Grief, Good News in Sad Stories + Singleness in Church (Interview with Annie F. Downs) (Apple Podcasts, Spotify + YouTube) Diane’s Substack: A Quiet Place Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is currently available as our thank you gift to Legacy Builders, Intentional’s monthly giving community. Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional. Intentional Motherhood Retreat: October 15-17, 2026 in Portland, OR Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to hello@intentionalparents.org, mentioning your name and where you’re from. Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition Join Our Legacy Builders Watch on YouTube Follow Us on Instagram:  @intentional_parents  @brookmosser @emosser FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF FREE Text Message Daily Devotional Raising Passionate Jesus Followers The Intentional Film Series

    Raising Daughters: Preparing Ourselves to Prepare Our Girls

  5. Oct 7

    The Antidote to Estrangement and Relational Strain

    In an age of cancel culture, estrangement and relational strain are touching more families than ever. In this episode, we explore humility as the antidote, looking at six marks of a humble person and how they can transform every relationship in your life, from staying teachable when we're corrected to being willing to move toward repair when there's been hurt. Staying teachable is hard when we're busy protecting ourselves from being exposed. With teenagers especially, it's tempting to lead with facts, but listening to understand rather than to correct helps them feel heard and loved. When we take honest ownership of our part, we model responsibility for our kids, and something as simple as saying "you're not wrong" can open the door for humility on both sides. Because shame sits just beneath the surface, we need to respond with care, remembering that pride often masks insecurity and that our tone of voice reveals whether our strength feels like protection or pressure. Ultimately, it isn't our job to reach our children's hearts. That's God's work, and our role is simply to guide them to Him. Since real control isn't possible anyway, releasing the outcome and entrusting everything to God brings freedom, and when one person moves toward repair, the other often follows. Put simply, a humble person is teachable, curious, responsible, gentle, surrendered, and willing to repair. And if someone puts you on a pedestal, it's your job to get off it. The Antidote to Estrangement: Six Marks of a Humble Person A humble person is teachable. Remaining teachable is a choice we have to keep making. When someone corrects you, do you become curious or defensive?A humble person listens with curiosity. In every relationship, whether marriage, young kids, or adult children, we listen to understand, not to correct. Do the people you love feel heard by you, or merely answered?A humble person takes responsibility. This isn't humiliation; it's honest ownership. Can I name what I did without first explaining why I did it?A humble person is gentle with their strength. Meekness is not weakness. Do the people in my home experience my strength as protection or pressure?A humble person does not need to control the outcome. Control isn’t possible anyway. Am I offering wisdom, or am I trying to secure the outcome I want? What am I afraid of?A humble person is willing to repair. An unwillingness to forgive or to receive forgiveness is a pride issue. When there has been hurt, do you move toward repair, or do you wait for the other person to make the first move?Scripture Mentioned: James 4:6, Isaiah 66:1–2, Philippians 2:8, Deuteronomy 6:4, Philippians 2:21, Proverbs 27:15–16, Luke 4:22, John 7:46 + Matthew 5:3 Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is currently available as our thank you gift to Legacy Builders, Intentional’s monthly giving community. Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional. Intentional Motherhood Retreat: October 15-17, 2026 in Portland, OR Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to hello@intentionalparents.org, mentioning your name and where you’re from. Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition Join Our Legacy Builders Watch on YouTube Follow Us on Instagram:  @intentional_parents  @brookmosser @emosser FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF FREE Text Message Daily Devotional Raising Passionate Jesus Followers The Intentional Film Series

    The Antidote to Estrangement and Relational Strain

  6. Sep 30

    What If I Married the Wrong Person?

    What if there's someone better out there? Why is marriage so hard? In this final episode of our Stay in Your Cell series, we name that forbidden thought for what it is: a lie. We start with our own story, including the struggles in our marriage, because we're still in process ourselves. Paul warns that anyone who marries will face trouble. Every marriage has it, from deep heartache and betrayal to the mundane difficulties of daily life. Marriage is also a mirror that reflects who we really are, and the pressure cooker of marriage and kids only makes that mirror bigger. The lie says life would be easier and happier with someone else. But what if, instead of running, you stayed in the pain long enough to find joy in the life you already have? The Desert Mothers and Fathers taught that if you stay in your cell, it will teach you everything you need to know. Staying means accepting the spouse you actually married, not the idealized version we can endlessly edit in our minds. If you feel broken right now, God is with you, and this is not the end of your story. Here are four practices for staying: Name the marriage you're comparing yours to. Then ask what you believe that marriage would give you that you're longing for.Own your side of the street. Each spouse can ask: What is mine to own? What is mine to do? What is mine to release?Practice turning toward one another. When you want to withdraw, make one move toward your spouse.Renew your yes. Tell each other that you still choose them. When we do our own healing, we bring healing to the next generation too. God gives grace to the humble, and since we can't control our spouse's formation, each of us has to humble ourselves and invite Jesus into the desperate places. Our first yes was said with hope; our later yes is said with knowledge. So maybe the better question is: what if you stay long enough to let God use your spouse to make you the kind of person He wants you to be? Scripture Mentioned: 1 Corinthians 7:28, Genesis 24, Colossians 3:13, John 15:4, James 4:6 + Matthew 5:3 Book Mentioned: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is currently available as our thank you gift to Legacy Builders, Intentional’s monthly giving community. Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional. Intentional Motherhood Retreat: October 15-17, 2026 in Portland, OR Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to hello@intentionalparents.org, mentioning your name and where you’re from. Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition Join Our Legacy Builders Watch on YouTube Follow Us on Instagram:  @intentional_parents  @brookmosser @emosser FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF FREE Text Message Daily Devotional Raising Passionate Jesus Followers The Intentional Film Series

    What If I Married the Wrong Person?

  7. Sep 23

    Why Is It So Hard to Find Friends and Even Harder to Keep Them?

    As part of our “Stay In Your Cell” series, we pose the question: Why is it so hard to find community, and even harder to stay in it? When the family is growing and the calendar is full, it's easy to not send the text, not make the plan, and slowly drift away from the people in our lives. Plus, our culture hands us an easy exit whenever things get uncomfortable: we can unfollow, leave the group chat, or leave the church, and before long we become relationally aloof. And if you're a young family with no relatives nearby and you're struggling, it may be because you were never meant to do this life alone. We talk about how the early church in Acts wasn't built on everyone getting along perfectly or sharing the same life stage and preferences. It was built on being on mission together. Community is a mirror: it reveals our priorities and shows us whether we're hospitable, controlling, or somewhere in between, because we're letting people who aren't family see our weaknesses and our true selves. Inevitably, people will annoy us and church will bother us, but sometimes healing is on the other side of being known, and we can't be known without staying involved. We close with four ways to find and keep community: choose your people before you need your people, practice confession often, repair before replacing, and become the friend you keep wishing you had. Not everyone has to know everything, but some people have to know most things. You can't be deeply known if you're always starting over. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can stop critiquing the people around us, stay faithful, and choose to grow right where we've been planted. Scripture Mentioned: James 5:16, Acts 2:42, Colossians 3:13, Galatians 6:2 + Proverbs 18:24 Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is currently available as our thank you gift to Legacy Builders, Intentional’s monthly giving community. Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional. Intentional Motherhood Retreat: October 15-17, 2026 in Portland, OR Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to hello@intentionalparents.org, mentioning your name and where you’re from. Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition Join Our Legacy Builders Watch on YouTube Follow Us on Instagram:  @intentional_parents  @brookmosser @emosser FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF FREE Text Message Daily Devotional Raising Passionate Jesus Followers The Intentional Film Series

    Why Is It So Hard to Find Friends and Even Harder to Keep Them?

  8. Sep 16

    Why Can’t I Stay Where I Am? Learning to Be Content With Your Actual Life

    We're kicking off a new series called "Stay in Your Cell," and it starts with a question we've both been sitting with: why can't we stay where we are, in the current life we actually have? Before we get there, we share an update on the last eight weeks: Elizabeth's ongoing chronic back pain, and how it's shaping the honesty we're bringing into this conversation. We're in this with you, frustrations and all. The series title comes from a saying attributed to the Desert Mothers and Fathers: “Stay in your cell, and it will teach you everything.” Your cell is your home, your job, your community, the actual life in front of you, not the one you're imagining somewhere else. We talk about the difference between being called away from a place and simply being unable to remain in one, and why our generation in particular struggles to stay: bigger houses, nicer cars, a different kid, a different spouse, or just the quiet pull of a screen that makes escape easier than it's ever been. We're honest that escaping doesn't require leaving. Sometimes it's just a phone in your hand while your actual life waits in the next room, and even if you did leave, the same root discontentment would follow you. We land on four practices for learning to stay: naming your escape fantasy (finishing the sentence "if ________ changed, things would be better"), practicing receiving your actual life, building a rule of life for the season you're really in, and refusing to make big decisions out of temporary restlessness. Grounded in Philippians 4 and Romans 5, this episode is an honest, hope-anchored conversation on contentment, perseverance, and the ordinary life you've been given to actually live. Scripture Mentioned: Philippians 4:11-13 + Romans 5:3-5 Books Mentioned: What Grows in Weary Lands by Tish Harrison Warren + Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren Previous Episode Mentioned: 20 Years From Now: What You'll Wish You Focused On As a Parent (w/ Sally Lemos, MS, LPC) (Spotify, Apple Podcasts + YouTube) Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is currently available as our thank you gift to Legacy Builders, Intentional’s monthly giving community. Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional. Intentional Motherhood Retreat: October 15-17, 2026 in Portland, OR Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to hello@intentionalparents.org, mentioning your name and where you’re from. Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition Join Our Legacy Builders Watch on YouTube Follow Us on Instagram:  @intentional_parents  @brookmosser @emosser FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF FREE Text Message Daily Devotional Raising Passionate Jesus Followers The Intentional Film Series

    Why Can’t I Stay Where I Am? Learning to Be Content With Your Actual Life
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In a world where distractions are endless and culture constantly pulls us in different directions, it’s more important than ever to remain intentional in your marriage and parenting. Brook and Elizabeth Mosser, alongside Phil and Diane Comer, invite you into a conversation about biblical formation — offering wisdom, encouragement, and practical tools for raising passionate Jesus followers. As an intergenerational team that is also family, we bridge the perspectives of different life stages, drawing from both decades-long experience and fresh insight on the topics of parenting and marriage. From vulnerable Q+R sessions to insightful guest interviews, we explore real-life stories of both steady formation and radical transformation — unpacking how God is shaping our lives and the lives of those around us. Join us each week as we pursue God’s design for life, marriage, and parenting — with intention.

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