When Holidays Hurt: Bo Stern and Justine Froelker

Jesus Calling: Stories of Faith

Jesus Calling

802298, Presenceofgod, Christianity, Podcast, Sarahyoung, Experiencepeace, Religion & Spirituality, Jesuscalling

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2018

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bo Stern and Justine Froelker have walked dark roads filled with grief and lost hope. Today, Bo and Justine share how God gave them strength during and in the aftermath of their personal heartaches, especially at the holidays. Author and pastor Bo Stern had a happy home filled with four children, lots of friends and a loving church family. After two decades of marriage, her husband Steve’s health gradually began to deteriorate and they came to learn he was battling the first signs of ALS. In her book When Holidays Hurt, Bo recalls how painful and disorienting the Christmas season was during Steve’s illness, and how she wrestled with how to hold sadness and joy in her heart during the holidays. As therapist and author Justine Froelker has grown closer to God and studied with shame and vulnerability researcher Dr. Brené Brown, she has learned how to share her painful journey so she can help others. One of Justine’s most painful battles has been her struggle with infertility, all the while witnessing her friends’ growing families. In an unlikely encounter with God on Christmas Eve, Justine realized He had been with her during every painful step of her journey, and He had great plans for her, though they might look different than Justine’s own plan for her life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode of the Jesus Calling Podcast is brought to you by James Avery Jewelry.
0:07.0	Christmas gifts for everyone on your list. James Avery.com.
0:10.0	I think I am more connected now to the suffering Christ than I ever was before and it
0:17.4	helps me relate to suffering people in a way that's compassionate instead of
0:22.0	judgmental or corrective or prescriptive if only you could get yourself out of this thing and now I realize man God does his best work inside of our hardest moments. He was built for this. I was not. I think I was created for a
0:36.3	garden, but he was built for battle and he shows up in it.
0:40.8	Welcome to the Jesus Calling podcast. Today's guests are author and pastor,
0:45.8	Bo Stern and therapist Justin Frelker. In each of their lives,
0:50.5	Bo and Justin have walked dark roads filled with grief and lost hope.
0:55.6	As each traveled through a long season of sadness, they encountered loneliness, even when surrounded
1:00.7	by joy and other people. Today Today Bo and Justine tell us how God gave them the strength
1:06.5	to face life during and in the aftermath of their personal heart aches. Up first is Bo Stern. Bo had a happy home filled with four children, lots of friends, and a loving church family.
1:18.0	After two decades of marriage, her husband Steve's health gradually began to deteriorate, and they came to learn he was battling the first signs of ALS. In her book, When Holidays Hurt, Bo recalls how painful and disorienting the Christmas season was during Steve's
1:34.9	illness and how she wrestled with the notion of how to hold sadness and joy in her heart during
1:40.3	the holidays.
1:41.3	My name is Bo Stern and I am a pastor and author in Bend Oregon actually
1:49.7	and I wrote a book for those whose holidays are very difficult. I am an Oregon girl born and
1:56.9	bred and I've lived in Oregon most of my life and my family were amazing are amazing, my parents are the most amazing people,
2:06.0	raised me, loving and knowing Jesus,
2:09.2	and just built to follow him and pursue him.
2:13.0	And then I met my husband in Bible College,
2:17.0	and we got married in the 80s,
	...

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