I'm Emily P. Freeman and welcome to the next right thing.

You're listening to episode 237.

This is a podcast about making decisions but also about making a life.

If you struggle with decision fatigue, with chronic hesitation, or if you just need a few

minutes away from the constant stream of information and that sometimes still light

full but also distracting hum of entertainment, you're in the right place for discerning

your next right thing.

Today for the second time ever, I'm hosting a conversation with my husband, John Freeman,

who is my favorite.

We've been married for 21 years and have two rising college freshmen and one rising high

school sophomore and we've lived in the same town since we got married back in 2001.

Professionally, John runs a local community-funded nonprofit called Grace Discipleship where he

serves as a spiritual director providing sole care and discipleship for the next generation.

John has been a steady listening presence for several decades here in our hometown of

Greensboro, North Carolina and he regularly meets with teenagers, college students, couples

and ministry workers to prayerfully hold space for them to discern what God might be up

to in and around them.

Today I'm eager to sit with John and talk about some times of discernment and decision-making

in our own marriage and how serving on staff at a church for over a decade prepared him

for his work as a spiritual director.

And then we'll also talk a little bit about what's on our minds as we prepare to send

our twins off to college.

...