Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast - Ep. 125: Underestimated: From a Single-Wide Trailer in W. Va. to Yale Law School with Mary Marantz

Ep. 125: Underestimated: From a Single-Wide Trailer in W. Va. to Yale Law School with Mary Marantz

04/21/25 • 69 min

Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast

Mary Marantz knows how fear can hold us back. Even though she was able to leave the musty single-wide trailer of her childhood in West Virginia and make her way to Yale Law School, she always carried the fear that she would be found out. Even though she had worked hard and earned every grade and scholarship she received she thought others saw her as an imposter. So, she strove to be the best at everything she did, and she was. But the life of perfection has a way of draining the joy out of you. Mary finally realized that fear was holding her hostage to a life that didn’t provide freedom and that he is a boring liar. In this episode she shares part of her fascinating story of growing up in rural West Virginia, which is the topic of her first book, Dirt, with a dad who was a proud eighth generation logger, a mom who cleaned houses and her amazing grandma Goldie. In her newest book, Underestimated, she shares how she overcame perfectionism, procrastination, people-pleasing and more. She understands the drive to prove others wrong and show everyone just how far you’ve come, while also doubting yourself at every turn. Mary has learned that we all must own the muddy parts of our stories so we can move forward in the purpose God has for us. Because, as Mary says, God does His best work in the muddy, messy, and broken if we’ll only learn to dig in.

Go to Carolroper.org for show notes

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If you'd like to connect with me or have an idea for an episode you can email me at [email protected]

Watch on YouTube Underestimated: From a Single-Wide Trailer in W. Va. to Yale Law School withe Mary Marantz

Go to Carolroper.org for show notes

Join the Building Strong Homes community by signing up for email updates and receive my baked spaghetti recipe

Also join the Building Strong Homes Facebook Community

If you'd like to connect with me or have an idea for an episode you can email me at [email protected]

Watch on YouTube Underestimated: From a Single-Wide Trailer in W. Va. to Yale Law School withe Mary Marantz

Previous Episode

Ep. 124 From Lonely to Loved: A Blueprint to Building Lasting Friendships

When I started this podcast, my two best friends, Frieda Younts and Julie Bagwell, graciously agreed to be my first interview. We wanted to help other women find and experience friendship like ours, because good, godly friends can have an amazing impact on your life, as we all can testify. One of the things Frieda said during that interview describes the foundation of our friendship.

She said, “We started with [honoring God in our get-togethers]. When we started with that, God knit us together. That’s why we don’t have huge arguments because we’re knit together by God. He started our friendship, and I think we’ll be friends till we die.”

I sure hope so.

You might be listening to this thinking, “Good for you, Carol. I’m glad you found your friends but I’m still lonely, wishing I had at least one good friend I could count on.” And I understand. I remember how hard those days were when I was a young mom. Or maybe your kids have moved out and you’re struggling to learn how to live this new empty-nest lifestyle and would love to pour out your heart to other women in the same stage of life. Or you may have recently moved to a new community, and you don’t know how to find someone you can relate to.

As I look back at how our friendship formed, I see lessons I’ve learned and things we did right when we weren’t even aware of it. In this episode I share some things we did that I hope will help you find your own lifelong friends.

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If you'd like to connect with me or have an idea for a Kitchen Table episode you can email me at [email protected]

Watch on YouTube From Lonely to Loved: A Blueprint to Building Lasting Friendships with Carol Roper

Next Episode

Ep. 126: Is It Really That Bad for Christians to Cuss? with Carol Roper

When my kids were teens, I shared with both of them that I used to curse—a lot. You should have seen the expressions on their faces as their jaws dropped, and eyes grew wide with disbelief. “Not you Mom! I don’t believe it!” I was pleased that I had to convince them otherwise, glad that I’d decided when they were both very little that my speech needed to change. That, and the Holy Spirit got ahold of me.

When I was thinking about this week’s kitchen table topic, I was surprised by some of the pushback I received. I had no idea that cursing for Christians was a controversial subject. No, the Bible doesn’t explicitly say, thou shalt not curse, but as I looked up scriptures about our speech, I believe it’s overwhelmingly clear that God does not want us using bad language to express ourselves, especially in front of those who aren’t Christians.

Listen as I share what I learned the Bible has to say about our speech and how we should portray ourselves as Christians in the episode.

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Watch on YouTube Is It Really That Bad for Christians to Cuss? with Carol Roper

For show notes visit CarolRoper.org