The Julie Bender Show

Do you feel disqualified because of your past?

My guest Toni Collier has learned from personal experience that when you allow God to redeem your brokenness and surrender your life and story to Him, hope truly is possible.
Toni and I discuss how shame from past mistakes and/or abuse can be crippling, (and she has incredible stories of both)—but when God comes in, you're given an assignment to boldly and bravely point to His strength, no longer left feeling discounted because of your weakness.
I know you'll laugh, nod along and be inspired to be bold about your brokenness and move toward holy healing after hearing this episode!
Learn more about Toni

Toni Collier is the founder of an international women’s ministry called Broken Crayons Still Color, which helps women process through brokenness and get to hope. She serves alongside her husband Sam who is the Lead Pastor of Hillsong Atlanta. Toni is a speaker, host, and consultant that has helped organizations with creative marketing, leadership, student ministry, and strategic planning. She’s had the opportunity to proudly stand on stages like North Point Community Church, Chick-Fil-A, IF Gathering, Orange Conference, and MomCon. Toni kills illusions. She confronts the hard things. She takes her challenges head-on, then she takes on your challenges. And, in this digital age of anxiety, Toni is teaching people all over the globe that you can be broken and worthy and unqualified and still called to do great things. She doesn’t want you to just face your demons, she wants you to quash the illusion of your brokenness so you can live the most colorful life possible, on and off stage.
Find Toni online here and on Instagram here.

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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. They assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. It's not a crisis line, it’s not self-help, it is professional counseling done securely online. BetterHelp committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches so they make it easy and free to change counselors if needed. It’s more affordable than traditional offline counseling and financial aid is available.
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This affirmation "my voice matters" is especially important to me, and I hope after listening to this episode, it will be to you, too. Your voice, expressed in your opinions, thoughts, beliefs, and boundaries carries significance and weight, even if you’ve been led to believe otherwise. I’ll share what might prevent you from speaking up, and why you should start boldly using this form of expression that’s entirely unique to you.

Get the full show notes here for previous episodes in the series, the downloadable image with all the affirmations, and the bible verses shared.

Want to hire me as your voice actor?
Find me online: https://www.voices.com/profile/juliebender or https://voice123.com/voice-actor/julie24
or email me [email protected]

Episode Sponsor:
BetterHelp

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. They assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. It's not a crisis line, it’s not self-help, it is professional therapy done securely online. BetterHelp is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches so they make it easy and free to change therapists if needed. It’s more affordable than traditional offline therapy and financial aid is available.
Thanks again to my sponsor, BetterHelp who has a special offer for The Julie Bender Show listeners! Get 10% off your first month at https://betterhelp.com/thejuliebender
And try their Christian arm, FaithfulCounseling with 10% off your first month, here.
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Are You Scared of the Hard Stuff?
No two people's lives are the same. We all bring our personality, life experience, strengths and insecurities to every storm we weather. But the beauty is that we can learn from the hard things others face without actually having been in their shoes. I have gleaned so much from watching Chelsea Woodward find beauty and joy in the face of incredibly difficult circumstances and as she retells them here, I am confident you will, too. She shares how her life was turned upside down after her son's autism diagnosis, and inside out when her husband narrowly escaped death just a few short years later. Chelsea is raw, unfiltered and refreshingly honest about how faith, therapy and vulnerability have helped her cope. I hope you're ready to cry, gasp (and consider therapy) after hearing her story (so far).
Chelsea is a proud wife, fierce mama bear and a storyteller by trade, whether it’s capturing stories via photograph, ghost writing, podcasting, or blogging. Her life’s work is to tell a story, and does she have one for you. Find out how prosthetics and autism became part of her everyday lingo.
Follow Chelsea on Instagram and listen to her podcast, here.
Find her husband Josh's story through the #woodwardstrong.
And listen to him on Spotify!
Get clickable links here: https://thejuliebender.com/beauty-in-the-hard-things-with-chelsea-woodward-017/

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Everyone's got a little baggage. Is there a better way to make light of your junk than by making (or sharing) a meme about it? I think not. And so does my witty and winsome friend, Jen Piper. We met in college when she surfed on my couch and we had inverse-matching hair (see the full show notes to enjoy). She watched as I and several other friends got married before her and then when it was finally "her turn" her fiance called it off just days before the ceremony.

Years later after getting over that "dodged bullet" (her words!) she met and married her fire-fighter husband only to be diagnosed with a brain tumor just shy of her 30th birthday (with two young girls in tow). She took her recovery time to start an accidental business that thrived on graphic tees and funny memes. Lemonade, I'd say.

My friend has had her share of heartbreak, but in this chat we admit just how much of yourself you find after pain, mistakes and age, anyway. We recount some entertaining memories and confess how hard it can be to live your life under the lens of the social media microscope. Mostly, we talk candidly about baggage and moving beyond it. To #beboldandjustbeyou.

Learn more about Jen

Jen is a south Florida native who currently resides in Columbus, Ohio. She’s a fire fighter wife and Mommy to two daughters (ages 7 and 8). She’s a brain tumor survivor who started an impulsive clothing brand as a way to keep busy during recovery. She currently works as a graphic designer and social media manager. She enjoys writing, oversized sweatshirt season and is currently binge watching every season of Survivor in preparation to be on the show. You can follow her on Instagram here!

Here are the books Jen recommended on the episode:

Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality (both by Donald Miller)
This is the blog post I mentioned about why I fell in love with Disney.
Word of the show: effulgent [ ih-fuhl-juhnt, ih-fool-] adjective 1. shining forth brilliantly; radiant.
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Visit me at thejuliebender.com and get this episode show notes here.

Your size and/or shape does not determine the quality of your character, yet many of us confuse these two measures all the time.

Coach and nutritionist Sam Gwaz (@thesamplan on Instagram) joins me to discuss how diet culture has affected how we see ourselves, food and fitness and ultimately our value. Starting with her experience having distorted body image, she shares practical ways we can begin to reframe the messages we've received and believed and how to feed our body and minds life-changing truth.
In this episode, Sam and I talk about how tracking your food intake can be both healthy and harmful, what kinds of goals you should have for your health, all the other "losses" that come from constantly chasing weight loss and resources to help you make needed shifts to find freedom.

Learn more about Sam
Sam is a Certified sport nutritionist, strength and conditioning coach living in LA and working on normalizing healthy bodies no matter what shape they're in. You can find her on Instagram here or send her an email!
Here is the Instagram post I shared for my bold thing.
Here is the book I mentioned I had just found, Jess Connolly's Breaking Free from Body Shame. Jess joined me on this episode: How to Break Free From Body Shame With Jess Connolly – 029Here are the books Sam recommended in the episode:
The Matrix, Atomic Habits and Braving the Wilderness Get full show notes here.

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