WARNING: This episode contains conversations about suicide and may not be suitable for all listeners/viewers.

What do you do when your worst nightmare comes true after a painful battle with a loved one's mental illness? How do you hold the tension between hope and the mysteries of God in your life after loss?

For author, speaker, advocate and pastor's wife Kay Warren, learning to hold onto hope after losing her son Matthew while accepting the mysteries of all she did not understand was difficult. Kay and her husband, author and Pastor Rick Warren, had walked a long, difficult journey through Matthew's lifelong struggle with mental health and faced every parent's worst fear coming true when their adult son died by suicide. Kay experienced the depths of grief and sorrow as she wrestled with God to make sense of such a tragedy. But her pain has given her the opportunity to become an advocate for mental health in the church and a voice of hope for parents who are facing a similar journey.

In this honest conversation, Davey and Kay talk about how reality, grief, and hope must all co-exist together, why we need both hope and mystery as we look back on our pain, and how to deal with the shame and guilt after losing a loved one to suicide.

If you've found it hard to hold on to hope in the darkness of your suffering, this episode will light a pathway towards it.

What is the connection to our brain's health and our mental health? How can taking care of our brains help us heal from grief, trauma, depression or anxiety?

Dr. Daniel Amen is a world renowned psychiatrist who began to notice early in his practice that there was a disconnect in psychiatry and the lack of study being done on the brain. It was through years of scanning brains through a technology called SPECT that Dr. Amen began to recognize that what many considered mental health issues were actually brain health issues and that when you started to heal the brain, you could begin to see incredible healing with the myriad of symptoms plaguing his patients. Dr. Amen has spent his lifetime and practice teaching people the importance of brain health through his many books. He recently released Raising Mentally Strong Kids: How to Combine the Power of Neuroscience with Love and Logic to Grow Confident, Kind, Responsible, and Resilient Children and Young Adults to help parents.

In this episode, Kristi and Davey sit down with Dr. Amen to discuss why brain health matters with our mental health, how to heal our brains after trauma, and how brain science can help us in parenting.

If you or someone you love struggles with mental health or if you are trying to raise brain healthy kids, this conversation will teach you how to better care for the part of you that impacts your life the most.

How do we take the immense heartaches we experience and use them for God's glory? How do we continue to trust in the Lord's goodness when our experience feels quite the opposite in our pain?

For author Tim Challies, losing his 20 year old son tragically and unexpectedly gave him the opportunity to lean into all he believed to be true about God as he resolved to steward his sorrow well. Through his writing of his book, Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God, Tim gave a real-time account of his grieving process and his ultimate conclusion that God was still good and the provider of comfort even in our greatest losses. His writing was not only a way for his own heart to process and heal, but it has become a beacon of hope to so many others encountering their own sorrows and pain.

In this episode, Tim sits down with Aubrey to discuss what it looks like to lead our family through pain when we too are enduring it, how writing can be a helpful part of healing and the importance of knowing our true identity in the face of our losses.

Losing a child is an agonizing and heartbreaking experience and yet Tim's reminder to all of us, whether we have known that kind of pain or not, is that God is our ultimate comfort.

How do you stay afloat when it feels like waves of grief and trauma keep crashing over you? How can you keep a marriage together when it feels like everything is trying to tear you apart?

For Jeff and Sarah Walton, navigating the relentless storms of a child's neurological challenges, losing a job, and the impact of Lyme disease in their home seemed impossible. It felt like the story of Job where every aspect of their lives were touched by pain and suffering. In writing their book, Together Through the Storms: Biblical Encouragements for Your Marriage When Life Hurts, they shared their own journey through the unending trials of life and how they continue to find hope in the midst of all the pain they have endured and are still facing.

In this conversation, Davey sits down with Jeff and Sarah to talk about how God's Word can be a lifeline in the storms of life, why honest lament is a gift, how to endure suffering with hope as a couple and where to even begin when talking to our kids about the trials we endure as a family.

If you need to be encouraged by those who are still in the storm, this episode will show you that you can ride the waves between the reality you are living and the hope you have for a better future and find Jesus right where you are.

What do you do when you're overcome with anxiety? How can we connect our faith with our physical and mental health?

These are questions that Jenn Tucker began to ask after first walking her young daughter through anxiety and panic attacks, only to discover she herself was dealing with anxiety as well. As Jenn was on the journey of having a child who was struggling with both mental health challenges as well as a physical one, she started to recognize how little control she had in her world. What was often covered up under the guise of perfectionism and planning was soon recognized as her own deep seated anxiety. It wasn't until Jenn learned the spiritual discipline of breath prayer that she began to feel the peace and comfort of God, even when circumstances didn't completely change. It is through breath prayer that Jenn was able to learn to calm her body and soul and a tool God gave her as she continued to trust Him in her story.

In this conversation, Davey talks with Jenn about how we can often wrestle with the shame of perfectionism and control, why empathy grows out of our own struggles and the way that trusting God through our very breath and our prayer can be the way through whatever we are facing.

If you or someone you love have ever suffered from anxiety, this episode will give you both a practical way to find healing and the hope to keep going when life doesn't seem to go as planned.

Parenting is complicated whichever way you come into it. When grief and trauma are part of the equation, it can add even more layers to navigate. How do you sit in the messiness of adoption and fostering while learning to see the joys and the wins in the midst of it?

For Jillana Goble, it has been through the challenges of parenting via birth, foster care, and adoption that she has learned to welcome the invitations the Lord offers in the tensions of it all. As she said yes to the difficulties and joys, she has seen her own understanding of God and family widen in an unimaginable way. She has learned that parenting of any kind does not come with a road map or a formula with a promise, but rather it is the small, daily obediences to say yes to loving our children well in all circumstances. It is there that we begin to see God show up in places that were once thought to be irrevocably broken.

In this conversation, Davey sits down with Jillana to discuss the often complicated nature of adoption and fostering that we don't always see as well as how understanding how integrated we are-mind, body and soul-can help us love kids who have gone through unfathomable loss and trauma and how in it all, Jesus shows up in the mess.

Whether you have adopted or fostered or know someone who has, this episode will help you see that God invites us to know Him more through the imperfect and often difficult stories we all walk through.

Perhaps one of the greatest questions that comes after trauma or tragedy is how do we help our kids navigate pain? What do we as parents need to look for after loss or in the everyday struggles that kids are facing? When do we need to bring in an expert to help and what can we do in the in between?

David Thomas knows all too well the questions that emerge when families encounter crisis and the everyday difficulties plaguing our children. As a licensed counselor at Daystar Counseling in Nashville, TN, he has met with hundreds of kids and has walked with them through all sorts of challenges from trauma, grief and loss to anxiety and depression. What he has noticed in his clinical experience is that above all else, kids need parents willing to do the same emotional work of healing that they are wanting for their children. When we as parents start to look at our own stories, we can better help our children through theirs.

In this practical and timely conversation, Davey sits down with David to discuss why we need to do our own work as parents, the importance of following our child's lead after pain, understanding behavior as communication as well as how to help kids navigate anxiety and technology.

If you are struggling to know what to do with the pain or challenges your child is experiencing, this episode is full of helpful wisdom to help you parent well in the midst of it.

According to current statistics, we are facing a crisis when it comes to mental health and our kids. With an increase in suicide rates, depression and anxiety, many kids and teens are facing so much more than they can begin to know how to handle. What can we do as adults to be a safe place for a young person? How can we help a child heal from trauma and crisis?

Kim Tschirret knew from her own personal story as a child with an abusive and alcoholic father that healing was possible through Christ and the help of a seemingly unlikely source: horses. Kim found solace in spending time with a horse as a young girl and knew that others could find healing too by engaging with these magnificent animals. It is what led her to start Hope Reins, a non-profit organization in Raleigh, NC, that "pairs kids in crisis with rescued horses to find hope and healing." What has transpired is a beautiful story of redemption as horses and children, both facing painful emotional wounds, have found healing through the power of their connection with one another. Since its' inception in 2010, Hope Reins has helped over 2,600 kids in crisis at no-cost to the families it serves.

Davey sits down with Kim to talk about how our past pain can lead us into an incredible redemption story for others, what kids need to feel safe, and how any adult can be a trusted source of hope in a hurting child's life.

Resiliency after trauma is possible and Kim's story shows us what a powerful salve love can be for both discarded animals and wounded hearts in the quest for restoration.