Every Wise Woman Builds

Ashley Jackson can't see or hear. Yet this girl is one of the most brilliant minds I've ever met.   In this episode, she shares her story of living without hearing or sight. When I first met Ashley, back when Lexie was only 10 months old, I knew a smattering of sign language. Okay, I knew most of the sign alphabet.   As a child, the first "real" biography I'd ever read was about Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher, an...

Everybody has a story. I have a story, you have a story, your mailman has a story, the lady who does your nails has a story. In the telling and the listening to these stories waits the power to heal. If sharing our stories was easy, this world could be spared much pain.   Thankfully, some people are willing to share their stories because they've been taught by previous generations of storytellers.   In this episode of Every ...

"The force was strong back when we focused on the Book. We could see behind the enemy's plans. Now with the new books, everything's become cloudy except our feelings of intellectualism. Patting ourselves on the back while the city grows colder and darker."

- Lou, The Defense of New Haven

Hi, I'm Lexie Joy Dorris, and in this episode, I got to interview Amelia Joy Steege.

Her family has made movies that my family treasures. I have m...

Fear Thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I with strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.

The Bible says that every wise woman builds her house. From the moment a w...

Preach the gospel to yourself. Every day. Wise words from the woman who lost her daddy to the murderous savages he was trying to preach the gospel to, and who was taken by her mother to live with those savages. The gospel transformed that tribe of Aucas (meaning "fierce") to a truth-seeking tribe of peaceful believers.

And the gospel still has the power to change every savage lie we hear replayed in our own minds daily. You'll be ...

Welcome back to the Every Wise Woman Builds podcast! It's been a nice break, but now I'm excited to get back to you and share with you some of my friends. In this season, we'll be talking about everything from parenting without regrets to overcoming forgetfulness as we hit menopause. Today though, I'm sharing with you the very best friend I've ever had.

Who would've guessed that the most valuable book after the Bible is a tattered hymnbook? Within those pages lie the answers to the questions that man wrestles in every age.

In this episode of the Every Wise Woman Builds podcast, Lexie Joy and I talk about how my two year old went from mimicking nonsense like "Bulbous Bouffant Blubber Macadamia" to lisping truths he won't understand for years, but he'll still have them when he's 92....

"Should I work?   "Work from home?   "Or only work on my home?"    In this conclusion of the interview with Terrie Gatto on teaching kids to clean, Terrie and I talk about this constant struggle for mothers. I know there's nothing as satisfying as focusing on my family, but sometimes my focus is needed elsewhere "to pay a bill or two."    Terrie talks about how women in her life taught her she could do anything. Then she gives me m...

Here it is! The interview that taught me how to teach my children to clean. I have to tell you, I recorded this interview in May, and our home has changed drastically - for the better - because of this conversation.   In this inspiring interview, my dear friend Terrie Gatto shares with me how she trained her young children to clean - and enjoy it! Seriously! She has her small children racing each other to do laundry! And they do it...

I can’t tell you how many times it happened. Morning after morning, year after year, I crawled out of bed way too late, feeling like a loser and convinced of it as the lateness kept me from productivity.

I’d been reading Jolina Petersheim’s blog for a while when I saw she’d started posting about how she got up early. Guiltily, but hungry to learn, I observed. I tried to imagine all the things I could do if I got up early enough to ...

"Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days."

That's what I think about when I consider my old friend Jolina Petersheim. As a young college student, I'd give Jolina rides home from church and pepper her with well-intentioned advice with the air of a sage.

Looking back, I cringe at how I must've come across to this giddy little junior high girl who must've seen me as a major party pooper. I couldn't hold ...

What a gift God gave me as I sat across from Mrs. Brenda Gilley as the choir practiced in the room across the hall that Sunday afternoon. She told me how as she worried over a problem she couldn't fix, "My doctor told me, 'Turn your head! You're not God!" In this rich conclusion to last week's interview, Mrs. Brenda provides comfort and instruction far beyond what I've heard before on the subject of prayer. There's something about ...

Monday morning I woke up at 2:00am with labor-type pains in my kidney. Yes. My kidney. I am so. Not. Interested in finding out if kidney stones hurt worse than childbirth. I remembered a friend telling me recently how her kidney stones got dissolved without trauma, but 2am was way too early to message her. The pain scared me. So I prayed. And like usual, prayer put me to sleep. (Isn’t that awful? God is so merciful to let my lazine...

In this concluding episode of the interview with Donna Otto, Mrs. Otto shares more about how Elisabeth Elliot's sometimes daunting ways didn't crush Donna, even when her words were hard to hear. Important lessons here for anyone who needs to share truth without damaging the hearers. 

 

For more than 25 years Donna Otto, home and life management expert, has shared inspiration and practical wisdom. She is an Author and founder of Mod...

"The common begin. The uncommon finish." So says Donna Otto, a mentor of mentors who was mentored herself by Elisabeth Elliot, wife of martyred missionary Jim Elliot, and missionary to the Waorani (Auca) tribe in the jungles of Ecuador. 

In this, the first part of an interview with Donna Otto, Mrs. Otto tells about her background as a child of a "black sheep" who grew up constantly shepherded by wise women, eventually including Eli...