Are you feeling discouraged today?

This week? This year?

Odds are, if you yourself aren't, someone close to you is right now.

Discouragement is something that we all struggle with, whether it's related to our health,

our marriages, our kids, our jobs, and a whole lot more.

The question isn't, do you ever get discouraged?

Of course we all do.

The question is, when you get discouraged, where will you turn?

In our interview today, I'm talking with Lindsay Carlson about the discouragement that we all face

and where to turn for true encouragement

that won't let us down. Lindsay is a writer, a speaker, a mom, and a pastor's wife, and her newest

book is called A Better Encouragement, Trading Self-Help for True Hope from Crossway. Let's get started.

Well, Lindsay, thank you so much for joining me again on the Crossway podcast. It's good to be here. So, Lindsay, the title of your new book is

a better encouragement. And I think there's a lot implied in that title in those three words that I want to unpack today in our

conversation. But to start off, do you find that many people are feeling like they need encouragement

these days? I think yes. I think after a pandemic, people are very disconnected and especially

having come out of a season where people were doing church

from home. And so they may not be as connected to their church as they were before the pandemic.

I think I've seen actually a lot of emails from women's ministry directors, specifically speaking

about how they are regularly hearing from their women, how discouraged people are.

Do you feel like women in particular are facing a unique encouragement battle these days that maybe

feels distinct from what you're hearing from men and what you're, you know, the conversations

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