My faith doesn't always grow during the good times, it can, you know, when we're reading God's word and we're memorizing scripture and we're praying and we're in fellowship with others, we can grow, but sometimes those bad times, they're like miracle grow for our faith.

It's where we really run to God because we have to, and that's when our intimacy with Him deepens and our faith becomes more real is during those difficulties of life.

Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. Think about the times you felt strongest in your faith.

Was it when everything was going your way and you seemingly had no struggles? Or did you feel your faith expand and solidify after you'd experienced a difficult moment in your life, like an unexpected diagnosis or a rocky period during your marriage?

Our guests this week are familiar with a faith that grows through times of joy and times of pain and have learned to look to God in each season.

Author and speaker, Karen Aiman, and two-time cancer survivor, Christina Kotlis.

Karen Aiman is a Proverbs 31 ministry speaker and New York Times bestselling author.

Her passion lies in aiding women to love their lives as they serve God and others.

After authoring and publishing more than 14 books, Karen's most recent title, Make Their Day, focuses on how to outshine the negativity of the world and reach out to others with love and compassion.

Throughout her life, Karen has sought to live by biblical principles, holding to that standard in her marriage and while raising her kids.

She knows that no part of life will ever be perfect and simple, but she stands firm in her belief that God is guiding her and all those who seek Him to ultimately experience joy and contentment in their daily lives and with those they love.

I'm Karen Aiman with Proverbs 31 ministries. I'm an author and a speaker and I reside in Michigan, the middle of the mitten state up there in the north, and I've got three children. They're all adults now.

Todd and I have been married 32 years.

Sometimes when you get further into your relationship, especially when you get married, those strengths can sometimes morph into weaknesses because they get carried to an extreme.

And now those are the things that drive you the most crazy about your spouse. For example, my husband, I loved that he was a laid back agreeable sort.

We would talk about, you know, hey, where do you want to go out to eat and what movie you should be seeing? He always said, I have no opinion. You choose. And I loved that setup. I just loved it.

But that laid back go with the flow personality. Once we became married, I interpreted and misinterpreted sometimes as passivity because he would just not do anything.

You know, when I'd say, hey, we need to get this done. He'd go, oh, well, you know, who do I call or I'll get around to it.

And I just interpreted that kind of laid back never in a hurry personality as being passive because I'm a pretty much get things done and let's get it done now.

In fact, I would have done it yesterday had I known it needed to be done today.

And he looks at me with what first attracted him to me was the way I could just talk to anyone and he loved that about me because he's a little more reserved and quiet.

But he said about three days into our honeymoon, he wondered, is she ever going to stop talking because that strength of being good at conversation and communication can morph into a weakness of monopolizing the conversations.

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