Do you REALLY believe God is good? Knowing vs believing with Alena Franklin
Pardon the Mess with Scarlet Hiltibidal - Christian Motherhood, Biblical Parenting, Raising Christian Kids
Scarlet Hiltibidal and Christian Parenting
4.9 • 850 Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you have a child that is wrestling with their faith? Or maybe you fear this scenario with your little ones? What if they grow up and deny their faith or doubt God? What you will hear today through Alena’s story is that God is faithful. She is confident in that truth after a 7-year wrestling period with God.
Alena’s quest to know God helped her to know herself in a foundational way. This conversation not only helped me as a mom, but as a follower of Christ. Alena is a creative, author, speaker, actor and more who is wise beyond her years. She always makes me think in a new and fresh way.
My favorite part honestly is when she talks about the “ick” of women’s conferences. I could not get it together from laughing. She reminds me so much of her late mother Wynter Pitts. She is refreshingly honest, true to herself, wise and hilarious.
You will be encouraged to be patient with the wrestling periods of your own faith and your children’s faith. You will hear practical ways to support your children during their doubts.
Be sure to check out her new devotional, God Is, available now for teen and young women.
Enjoy!
Courtney
(00:00) The Emotional Journey of College Transition
(02:59) Wrestling with Faith and Identity
(05:48) Understanding God Through Personal Struggles
(08:29) Navigating Parent-Child Relationships
(11:26) Experiencing God's Presence in Grief
(14:15) The Importance of Knowing God
(17:08) Hearing from God in Everyday Life
(19:51) Creative Pursuits and Personal Growth
(22:44) The Impact of 'For Girls Like You' Magazine
Connect with Pardon The Mess:
ORDER YOUR 2026-2027 PRAYER JOURNAL NOW
Resources from today’s show:
God Is - Alean’s new devotional
Pardon The Mess is a part of the Christian Parenting Podcast Network. For more information visit www.ChristianParenting.org
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Christian Parenting. |
| 0:06.7 | I know you guys are like me. We all want to raise our kids to know love and follow Jesus, |
| 0:13.1 | but if we're honest, parenting with faith in today's world can feel so overwhelming. |
| 0:17.6 | Part of the mess is part of the Christian Parenting Podcast Network, and Christian |
| 0:21.4 | parenting exists to equip us with practical tools, encouragement, and biblical wisdom that we all |
| 0:26.6 | need to lead our kids in faith confidently. You don't want to miss the email that comes on |
| 0:30.7 | Fridays by Christian Parenting. It's a Friday favorites newsletter. It will give you quick, |
| 0:35.2 | practical parenting tips, faith building resources and |
| 0:38.1 | encouragement. It goes straight to your inbox. I love getting it. And you'll never feel |
| 0:41.8 | alone on this journey. And here's something special for you, the podcast listener. When you sign up |
| 0:46.4 | today, Christian Parenting will send you a free copy of the Discipleship Simplified Digital Guide. |
| 0:51.7 | It is so packed. It's got easy to use resources, conversation starters, |
| 0:55.4 | and scripts. Don't you love a good script to help you confidently answer your kids' tough faith questions? |
| 1:02.0 | Don't miss out. Subscribe now at cpodcast.org to get the Friday favorites newsletter |
| 1:07.1 | and your free discipleship simplified guide. That's cpodcast.org or just click in the link below to get those in the show notes. |
| 1:26.8 | Hey friends, welcome back to Pardon the Mess. I'm your host, Courtney Defeo, and I hope you guys are having a great fall. I need to confess something. I don't like pumpkin spice lattes. I really don't. Do you guys? But here's two pumpkin things I love. So if you have a Trader Joe's, I need you to go get their pumpkin bread mix. And then Larson sprinkled big hot chocolates all through it. It is so good. I maybe have had it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the last two days. And then they have pumpkin covered pretzels and like a pumpkin frosting. They are also so good. So if you're like, nah, I don't like a pumpkin spice sauce day. There's still a chance for this |
| 2:01.0 | pumpkin flavor for you if you go to Trader Joe's and get those two things. So I've given you a tip. Now, I need you all to send me your favorite college game day dip. I need something new. So while we always do the buffalo chicken dip, so good, always a little Texas caviar, but what else is an easy, like a |
| 2:18.2 | corn dip or something? Send me some good dips. I guess you can make it healthy, but I am just in the |
| 2:22.9 | market to try something new this fall, so send it to me. So we have Alina Franklin on the podcast |
| 2:29.2 | today. I absolutely love and adore her. She's been on before, and her name used to be Elena Pitts. She is |
| 2:35.8 | the daughter of Winter and Jonathan Pitts. And as many of you know, Winter went to be with Jesus. |
| 2:41.2 | I cannot believe it's been seven years. Winter was a dear friend of mine, and we had a podcast |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Scarlet Hiltibidal and Christian Parenting, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Scarlet Hiltibidal and Christian Parenting and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.