Shows
LOVE IS FEARLESS#159: All the Things We Say to God: A Conversation with Tanner Olson on Prayer, Parenting, and PoetryWhat if prayer wasn’t about getting the words right, but about being real? In this tender and honest conversation, Janet and Doug sit down with poet and author Tanner Olson, whose new children’s book All the Things I Say to God is helping families make prayer a natural part of everyday life. They explore Tanner and his wife’s journey through infertility and adoption, the power of surrender, and what it means to live a creative life anchored in faith, family, and honest conversations with God. You’re in the Right Place If… You wa...2025-06-1845 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#157: An interview with Robby Angle - A Conversation About Trusting Jesus In Everyday LifeToday, we have the joy of welcoming Robby Angle, President and CEO of Trueface, to the Love is Fearless Podcast! Robby is passionate about helping people move from simply knowing about grace to living out their true identity in Jesus—with trust, freedom, and relational depth. Before leading Trueface, Robby pastored thousands toward authentic community at North Point Community Church. Now, he’s helping steward a powerful new resource called The Path—an experience designed to move believers beyond striving and into a transformational life of trusting God. Also, The Path Experience Guide is designed for community gr...2025-05-2159 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#156: How to Raise Emotionally Healthy Kids in a Chronically Overstimulated World | with Sarah BoydIn this special episode of LOVE IS FEARLESS, Janet and Doug are joined by Sarah Boyd—author, child and adolescent development expert, and founder of Resilient Little Hearts. Sarah’s new book, Turn Down the Noise, offers a much-needed guide to raising emotionally healthy kids in today’s overstimulated world. This warm, insightful conversation explores the realities families face and the hope available when we slow down, simplify, and create a safe emotional atmosphere at home. You’re in the Right Place If… You feel caught between wanting to slow down and fearing what will happen if you do. Yo...2025-05-0755 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#150: Eight Benefits of Abiding You Can't Get From StrivingIf you've been going to church for a very long time, you probably think "abiding" is something you do - and you don't have time for one more thing! Join us in this conversation to be reminded that abiding is NOT what you may think: It doesn't need to happen at a specific time. There is no need for a "secret place" - at least not in your house. It's not about checking "read my Bible" off your to-do list. It's not about praying because you think you're supposed to. It's not your bid to connect with Jesus. Good news! Ab...2025-02-1238 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#146: R is for RESILIENCE, RECEIVE, and RESTYou’re in the right place if… You’ve been longing to understand how to build true resilience in yourself and your family, especially in a world where life often feels chaotic and overwhelming. You’re looking for practical insights on how receiving from God rather than striving in your own strength can transform your peace, relationships, and daily life. You want to create a home where connection with God and others isn’t just an idea but a way of life that fosters rest, resilience, and growth for you and your loved ones. Doug and Janet share an energizing and inspir...2024-12-0444 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#142: N is for NUTRITIONAL RELATIONSHIPSWe're jumping back into THE CURATED LIFE alphabet in this episode - marking places on the map of our new life in Christ in the Kingdom of God. You're in the right place if... you’re ready to make a change - not just in what you’re eating or how much you’re exercising, but you’re ready to look honestly at the stories you’re telling yourself and at the relationships that are having a significant effect on your soul. you feel exhausted by performance-driven living and parenting and want to create a home where love, acceptance, and growth are...2024-10-021h 02LOVE IS FEARLESS#140 M is for MARRIAGE, MONEY, and MYSTERYToday’s episode is about how the traditions of fear and law teach us to navigate marriage, money, and mystery–and how safe relationships and secure environments transform our distorted stories. You’re in the right place if… Your marriage is good. You have a good routine. You even have date nights built into your routine. But if you’re honest, even the conversations you share on date nights have become routine–and if you’re really honest, you wonder if there’s something better than a good routine. Your finances are in good shape. You’ve survived COVID, and the inflation of grocer...2024-08-071h 00LOVE IS FEARLESS#137: J is for JOY, JESUS, and TRUTH-TELLINGChristopher Cook says, "Transformation doesn't happen in a day. Transformation happens daily." And this is true, too: Conforming doesn't happen in a day either. Conforming to the patterns of our insecure attachments happens daily, too. Until it doesn't. Father is committed to our healing and transformation, friends. Our part is to let it happen. We get to keep putting ourselves in the way of faith, hope, and love. We get to keep on remembering that we are in the Father's keeping. Join Janet and Doug in this episode about the power of JOY, JESUS, and TRUTH-TELLING and linger in these TA...2024-06-1946 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#134: G is for GRIEF, GRATITUDE, and GENEROSITYIn season five, we’re having conversations about the atmosphere we breathe in, the rhythms we create, and the relationships and ideas we trust—and how different these things are when we live loved instead of living afraid. You’re in the right place if - You’re ready to create a lifestyle for yourself that builds a context for transformation instead of a context for conforming to the patterns of this world. You’re NOT ready to plant a flag in the land of losing, even though you’re NOT winning right now–at least not in the way the world descr...2024-05-0139 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#133: F is for FREEDOMYou’re in the right place if: You’re curious about FREEDOM because you want it but you’re not experiencing it. You’re afraid of FREEDOM because when you offer it to your kids, life seems to go off the rails and circumstances seem to get worse instead of better. Control seems to be a better option. You’ve heard the original good news of the gospel—that you’re not a sinner striving to become a saint, but a saint who sometimes sins—AND you’re wondering why you feel stuck in your old story instead of hopeful in your new life. ...2024-04-1758 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#132: E is for ENERGYThe kingdom of God offers us a different kind of energy than the empire of the world. The source of kingdom energy is God. His energy is love, and when we’re aware that we’re plugged into this power, we experience peace--not anxiety. Love energy is supernatural energy. That's one big reason why living loved feels so different from living afraid, so you’re in the right place if - You’re tired of running on the fuel of fear and anxiety and you’re hungry for permission to believe in something more. You enjoy hearing supernatural stories that...2024-04-0338 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#131: D is for DREAMSThis episode could be titled: Tomato Plants, Polar Bears, and Humans - that’s going to make more sense as we get farther into our conversation, but you're in the right place if: You need more than relief - you need a new story. Sometimes, your imagination runs wild with love instead of fear. You have ever dared to consider this idea - Jesus didn’t come to train a few followers in a new message who then went out and changed the world. Jesus changed the world and sent out followers who embodied that change because they had trusted and e...2024-03-2050 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#130: C is for CONVERSATIONSWe’re recording this episode one month after the end of the holiday season - and as much as we all get excited about Christmas parties and family gatherings…most of the families we talk to are still navigating some confusing and maybe some painful relationship struggles that have carried over into the new year. You’re in the right place if - You come from a good family but your family relationships are some of the most challenging - or maybe most painful. You want to be a good family member and do the right thing but honestly, sometimes, family...2024-03-0647 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#128: B is for BEAUTYYou’re in the right place if - You’re wondering why you’ve checked off all the boxes on the roadmap to success but you’re still struggling - with your habits, your finances, your spouse, or your emotions. You’re wondering why you keep getting sucked into the same destructive cycles in your story even if you’re really smart. You’re beginning to recognize that your relational assets are as important in your story as any other assets. In season five, we’re committed to helping you embrace a primary goal of living loved instead of simply measuring up. Tryin...2024-02-0742 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#126: How To Live Loved Instead of AfraidWelcome to Season Five! We're calling this season "The Curated Life - A Fresh Take on Living Loved" because we’re all at a real fork in the road. It’s a brand new year. Which direction will you go? How will you curate your story? We only have two choices and it’s often not what we think. We’re not looking at a new year, hoping that more good choices and less bad choices will finally tip the scales in our favor. No matter what our culture keeps telling us, conforming to the patterns of this world will never lea...2024-01-1046 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#125: How To Help Your Child Live A Secure StoryWe're starting a new conversation about helping our children live loved instead of afraid. You're in the right place if: Your child is experiencing a lot of success - but your relationship with your child is struggling. The distance between you keeps getting bigger and bigger - and you’re more convinced than ever that putting one foot in front of the other on the familiar path you’ve been walking is going to offer any relief. Your relationship needs something transformative. Your child is rebelling. They’re getting in trouble at school and stay in trouble at home. You’ve tried...2023-11-2948 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#124: How do you write a love story?Did you know there is a formula for love stories and we're all living in one? If you haven't gotten to the part where love casts out your fears, your story's not over yet! That's good news! Even better...that's THE GOOD NEWS! You’re in the right place if - You’ve given up on living a love story. If you were brutally honest, you don’t even want a love story anymore. You’ve found a comfortable rut on the road of self-reliance and you've decided connecting with people is too complicated. You’re afraid of a love stor...2023-11-1541 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#123: Changing The Standards For ChildhoodDon't let the title of this episode fool you. You’re in the right place if... ...you’re tired. You’re tired of your job, you’re tired of the struggle that won’t seem to end with your children (or your parents), and you’re tired of the chaos in the world that gives you a million reasons to be afraid. ...you’re curious. You’ve noticed on the days you take a break from the crazy cycle and go stare at a beach or hike in the mountains, there’s still something inside of you that dares to be moved by inspiration...2023-11-0145 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#122 A Tale of Two Wineskins"I’m recognizing that transformation is not possible in an achievement-oriented culture, it is only possible in an identity-oriented culture. When achievement is the goal, our identity will come from our accomplishments, and we'll live fueled by the power of fear. Shame will be the voice we hear. Fear conforms, not transforms." "When we put new theology - even the theology of love, into a culture identified by accomplishments and success, fear will be the fuel we run on. Our children will recognize the voice of Shame more than the voice of Love. Love can help our children ma...2023-10-1847 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#121: Exchanging Lies for LoveThe inner voice of Love always speaks the liberating truth of God - but our worldly development has programmed us to tune into another voice. We’re more familiar with the voice of fear. We’re more familiar with our own truth than God's truth. This episode is for you if: You’re more familiar with the voice of fear and shame than you are with the voice of love and truth. You know well the language of condemnation, cutting sarcasm, blame, control, and manipulation - but it sounds weird and very uncomfortable when you hear affirmation, encouragement, or simply...2023-10-0444 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#120 Why Survival Mode Might Be Killing Your Relationships This LOVE IS FEARLESS episode is for you if - You’re curious about building a different lifestyle to help you heal or restore a relationship because when you stop to think about it, the lifestyle you’re living is based on cultural values, and those values are not helping you enjoy healthy relationships. You’re starting a new relationship. You’re ready to admit that you don’t treat people who are struggling with kindness and empathy - and that’s a sign that you don’t really like yourself very much. You are sitting with the idea that seeing yourself...2023-09-2037 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#119 Creating a Family IdentityThis LOVE IS FEARLESS episode is for you if - Conflict is killing you. You’re seeing a pattern in your relationships, even with yourself. Whenever there’s a disagreement, the result is deconstruction instead of constructive. You know you have a new identity in Christ. You know the theology of grace. You know your new focus in life is love instead of avoiding sin. But when you’re honest with yourself, your story goes around in the same cyclical protection patterns when life is difficult - and you feel stuck. You’re confused about what to do with your emotions...2023-09-0641 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#118 Are Emotions Our Enemies Or Our Friends?Difficult days can go from bad to worse when we forget emotions are intended to be our friends instead of our enemies. When we live as if emotions are our enemies, we try to control them or pretend they don't exist. When we engage with emotions as our friends, we notice and listen to them. Valuing our emotions for the information they give us, we discover our core values and deep desires. We learn to pause and consider how to move forward in the direction of our goals instead of staying stuck in our self-protection patterns. ...2023-08-2354 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#115 A New Conversation About Relating With Others and Why It Matters More Than You Think The connection crisis in our culture is running parallel to the mental illness epidemic in our world - for us and for our children. The crisis is more than what we see when we notice families sharing a table while all staring at their phones. Connection is not a personal preference or a check off on our to-do list. It's a human need. Without it, we get sick. The real crisis started more than a generation before smartphones kidnapped our attention and we didn't bother to fight our captors. For all of us, the challenge to connect in...2023-07-1244 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#114 A Conversation About Learning How to Relate to YourselfLOVE IS FEARLESS is having a birthday! Born on July 4, 2018, LIF has been downloaded in over 60 countries and is transforming families worldwide. Share this episode to help us celebrate! In this Season 4 episode sharing new conversations about transformational books, Doug and Janet talk about Education by Design, Not Default - and the power of connection in childhood. As parents, we teach our children how they should be treated - for better or worse. Then our children teach others how to treat them, using the blueprint we've given them. If we teach our children we don't have tim...2023-06-2840 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#113 A Conversation About Life and Loss with Dan Herod Dan Herod is known for starting conversations we didn’t know we needed to have. Gifted with an uncommon path in life, he writes and speaks to empower. Born to a deaf father and surviving the aching wake of his parent’s divorce prepared him for the most crushing loss a parent can meet. He knows that a soul that screams heavenward in frustration about their situation can discover how hope sometimes lives between the lines. His newest release, The Three Mile Valley is a book and video series that equips the reader to live better by thinking better - w...2023-06-1432 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#112 A Conversation About Family, Faith, and Forgiveness with David Zailer The LOVE IS FEARLESS podcast is a safe place to have conversations about painful and difficult stories. If you experienced childhood in a dysfunctional family story and you're staggering through your own healing journey, this episode is for you. If your children are experiencing their childhood in a dysfunctional family story, this episode is for you, too. David Zailer is our guest in this conversation about the painful family of origin stories and the addictions that often become our ways of coping. David is an author, speaker, and founder of Operation Integrity. He is also on the faculty o...2023-06-0349 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#111 A Gift To the Class of 2023Janet was invited to share the commencement speech with a graduating class in Stephenville, TX and the message was so powerful and well-received, we promised some friends we'd share it on a podcast episode. If you have a 2023 graduate in your family, please tell them about this episode as our gift of congratulations and encouragement for their future. If it's been a while since you graduated, this gift is for you, especially if you're dreading Mondays in a fear story instead of living inspired with purpose, safety, and impact in a love story. Doug chose these takeaways from Ja...2023-05-1534 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#108 What if we don't call them bloopers?This is our first-ever BONUS episode! As we launch Season Four we're promising great conversations about books and authors that love us well. We're admitting that books are some of our best friends and we're excited about introducing you to some of the best. We're also committing to at least one new episode every month. While we're fundraising for John 15 Academy and Doug is still working full-time, we know we can be true to that commitment. Maybe you never thought about it much, but podcasting takes a lot of time. And it can be expensive, too. So we're...2023-03-0849 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#107 A Conversation About Unconditional LoveWelcome to Season Four! We're excited to share meaningful conversations about great books and maybe a few great movies, too. :) What do great books have to do with living loved instead of afraid? That's a good question. This season is all about building relationships with great authors and letting the ideas in books love us well. That means great books are good FOR US, not simply good. Powerful ideas are nutritious food for the mind, and abiding in them long enough to have a conversation is transformational. The short way to answer that question is that...2023-03-0641 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#105: How Faithful Love Offers Us HopeHope is soul food. We can live without it for a few days or maybe a few weeks, but living without it for very long causes us to be careless about life, experience depression, feel overwhelmed by shame, and isolate ourselves in the very moments we need connection in healthy relationships. Faithful love meets our God-given need for trust and offers us hope. Faithful love reminds us we are not alone, especially when we're experiencing struggle. Living with hope, we experience emotional elasticity. We bounce back from hard times and recognize that struggle is a normal part...2022-03-3030 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#104: How Love Meets Our Need for SignificanceIn our Everyday Love series, we’re talking about our God-given needs. This episode is all about our real need for significance and attention. Love meets our need for significance with affirmation. Without trusting this love, we’ll experience a loss of identity and be driven to perform for our acceptance. Love meets our need for attention with servant love. Without letting someone love us, our lives will be characterized by low self-esteem and an unhealthy self-story. Even though God is always loving us perfectly, our culture doesn’t often tune our hearts to God’s love. Our culture often tunes our...2022-03-2335 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#102: How can we experience correction as love?Every day we wake up with God-given needs. Having our needs met is the way we experience love. One of our everyday needs is for direction and love meets this need with corrective love. When we don’t trust corrective love, we’ll live misguided lives. Without corrective love, our children will be vulnerable and seriously affected by wrong life choices. A lack of direction will always make me a victim of my circumstances. Sorting out the difference between punishment and discipline is worth our time and energy in this episode. Both offer corrective love, but punishment offers toxic love and dis...2022-03-0938 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#099: What does it feel like to love someone? Welcome to Season 3! We’re calling this season “Every Day Love” and our goal is to make love practical in our everyday lives. Recognizing the practicality of love requires us to let go of some of the common UN-practical definitions and ideas that we have about love. Love is so much more than an emotion or something you feel when you first start dating or when you bring home a newborn baby. Being loved is very different from being “in love.” Love is an experience that changes us…for good! In this episode, I (Janet) share the story about the night I realized...2022-02-1638 min
Thrive: Mental Health and the Art of Living FreeCreating healthy relationships with your children: Interview with Janet Newberry [Episode 27]I'm joined today by the inspiring Janet Newberry who has helped families adopt a culture of love. Janet Newberry is an educational consultant and an unshakeable believer in the transforming power of love. Janet and her husband Doug offer a weekly LOVE IS FEARLESS podcast and support families in both an online community called John 15 Academy and in private consulting. Janet dives deep into how parents can foster healthy, strong relationships with their children. Also, we discuss her powerful book, Education by Design. We also talk about: How children are running on dopamine and c...2020-08-2849 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#094: Privilege and ResponsibilityIn a culture of love, work is the way we invest our time and energy that has an impact and influence for good in our own lives and in the lives of the world around us. In a culture of fear, we learn to avoid work and avoid responsibility. We learn to use manipulation and shame to deal with apathy and negligence--just to get things done. Join us in this episode as we untangle the stories we tell ourselves about work and discover some practical ideas to embrace in relationship with yourself and others that...2020-06-1043 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#093: What Are The Benefits Of Being Vulnerable?Transparency, authenticity, and vulnerability are popular buzz words these days. We sometimes use them as if they were synonyms, but they’re not. Transparency means we’re open and not hiding anything; authenticity means what we offer to others is valid and accurate. Vulnerability means I’m willing to be transparent and authentic because I need and trust your help. We say, “I’m hurt” or “I’m afraid” or "I'm ashamed" in the same conversation with “…and I don’t want to stay this way.” Listen in as Doug and Janet unpack the power of vulnerability and s...2020-06-0338 min
The Jill Monaco Show#060 The Power Of Fearless Love With Janet NewberryJanet is a self-proclaimed love researcher, podcaster on the LOVE IS FEARLESS podcast, author of the book "Education by Design, Not Default--How Brave Love Creates Fearless Learning," and founder and visionary of John 15 Academy. Janet understands a life bound to fear. We talk about how she came to recognize her fear-based convictions and trade them for love based convictions. She shares what brave love looks and how her book creates fearless learning. I know you’ll be so inspired to show fear the door when you know love has a better invitation! She and her hu...2020-05-1352 min
LOVE IS FEARLESS#091: How to THRIVE in a pandemic and in relationshipsA virus is an abuser--and we're all learning how to wash our hands and keep our distance so the toxic Coronavirus will make fewer people sick--especially those at high risk. Sometimes our relationships make us sick with a different kind of virus. In toxic relationships, lies can attack our integrity and weaken our emotional immune system. U in the LOVE IS FEARLESS alphabet stands for UNWILLING. Love gives us permission to be unwilling to live a life without healthy boundaries. This episode offers these TAKEAWAYS: Make two lists: willing and unwilling. (Doug a...2020-03-2548 min
LOVE IS FEARLESS#090: How Changing Your Beliefs Can Change Your LifeIf we aren't trusting love, we're trusting fear. The opposite of trusting truth is trusting lies. When we refuse to trust God, we're left trusting a resource that's less powerful and less trustworthy than a loving heavenly Father. None of us have trust issues; we have issues with the stuff we trust. Behavior is the echo of belief. For example, if I eat a sleeve of Oreos, it might be true that I KNOW better, but I BELIEVE it's ok to do the wrong thing. The same is true for the ways we relate in...2020-03-1848 minLOVE IS FEARLESS#084: 3 Questions To Help You Discover Your PurposeFear invites us to experience life differently than love does. What we experience, we will share. You're in the right place if you want to experience and share love--not fear. You're in the right place if you're hungry to discover your true PURPOSE in life and, perhaps, let go of an invalid identity that's wearing you out and keeping you afraid. In this episode, I share a vulnerable story from my childhood about an experience that offered me an invalid identity. And I admit that my real destiny just sat waiting for me while I pr...2020-02-0541 min
LOVE IS FEARLESS#077: Choosing JOY Instead of FearLOVE or FEAR will be our source of strength today and our bodies will develop reliance and a comfort level with one or the other. In our LIF community, we're learning what fear looks like and sounds like, and we're learning to respond to these signs and symptoms with love. In this episode, Doug shares about a time in his life when he was afraid and living DISCONNECTED from safe and meaningful relationships. DISCONNECTED is the LOVE IS FEARLESS contrast to JOY. JOY describes life by design--in a culture of love. Join us to hear a...2019-12-1838 min
LOVE IS FEARLESS#069: How do you respond to "not good"?We're filling a tool box with the things that help us build cultures of love. In the previous episode, we added AFFECTIONS to our tool box. This week, we share our own lists of "things we love" and how we sorted our loves into two categories: affections and addictions. In this episode, we're admitting that BEAUTY can be a power tool for real transformation--especially when the details of our lives are "not good." Enjoy the personal stories we share, and linger in these TAKE AWAYS: The key difference between a culture of fear and a cultur...2019-10-2328 min
Life Builders By Julie HamiltonJanet Newberry: Life & Parenting by Design, Not by Default“When we aim at the target of performance, maturity always suffers. But when we aim at the target of maturity, the performance goes off the charts.” This is one of the best parenting episodes we've ever had! Janet Newberry shows us how growing up in a performance based culture & education system harms our children, ourselves and our relationships. Thankfully, we have a choice to live free by design and not stay stuck in the default. In this episode, we chat about the differences between design vs default, how to know whether we're performing for others or being our t...2019-06-2738 min