Podcasts about when rachel

Rachel Engstrom is a young woman who has survived one of the toughest tragedies one can face in life, that has come out on the other side wanting to help others. She lives in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area with her family and beloved dog Greta. By day she helps consumers get connected to mental health and substance abuse services, and on evenings and weekends she is a podcast guest, guest blog writer, and volunteer, when not spending time with family or friends. She's the author of “Wife, Widow, Now What?” In today's episode, Rachel shares her journey navigating the cancer world and ultimately writing her memoir, “Wife, Widow, Now What?” When Rachel was 28 years old, her husband was diagnosed with leukemia. What they thought was the flu after working too many hours, turned out to be the life altering illness that would forever change everything they knew. Rachel became a cancer wife, manager, team cheerleader and expert juggler at life, while supporting her husband throughout his illness, until he died two days after she turned 31. She had to reboot her life and learn how to start over as a widow, without a map or guidebook to lead her. Rachel's humor, moxie and faith helped get her through the cancer world, and survive the calamity of errors that kept-on coming after he died. Today, Rachel's hope is to provide you with some laughter, comfort, solace and guidance on your own journey, whether it be through the world of cancer, or any other life challenges. To learn more and connect with Rachel visit her on Instagram @wifewidownowwhat Facebook @wife.widow.now.what and you can find her book on Amazon here Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here. *Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Stories of Inspiring Joy.

When Rachel sleeps, the swamp awaits her. Every night, the dreams of something pursuing her through the twilight-lit marshland, come. Her real life isn't much better. School's proving to be a disappointment, and after her mom's death, things really start falling to hell. When Rachel meets the new boy in her Math class, things get even stranger, stranger than she could have ever imagined. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Rachel sleeps, the swamp awaits her. Every night, the dreams of something pursuing her through the twilight-lit marshland, come. Her real life isn't much better. School's proving to be a disappointment, and after her mom's death, things really start falling to hell. When Rachel meets the new boy in her Math class, things get even stranger, stranger than she could have ever imagined. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Rachel was 28 years old, her husband was diagnosed with leukemia. What they thought was the flu after working too many hours, turned out to be the life altering illness that would forever change everything they knew. Rachel became a cancer wife, manager, team cheerleader and expert juggler at life, while supporting her husband throughout his illness, until he died two days after she turned 31. Show Notes: http://deathtalkpodcast.com Join the Positive Death Talk Club on Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/positive-death-talk Come chat in the Positive Death Talk room every Tuesday evening, 6-8pm PST Join the Positive Death Talk Group on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/groups/502949674047508

Friday 16th July The supernatural Today 5 I had a conversation a few days ago with this businessman who was owing the bank some hundreds of millions of Naira. Not knowing what to do, he cried to God and God gave him some specific instructions which he obeyed. A few days later he made some major sales in the hundreds of millions, he paid the money and in a very short time he was out of that situation. This is a clear case of supernatural intervention, by following divine instruction a solution came to a problematic situation. We all handle situations in different ways, it's important that we don't trivialize people's challenge especially when we don't really understand their situation. One of the greatest qualities Jesus had was his ability to show compassion to people who were going through difficult situations. We all need to emulate this quality. Sometimes people around us could be going through what is a very hard time for them but to us it might be a simple issue or we just might not understand because we have never been in that situation, no matter what we must learn to empathize with people. The desperation of a situation can make some people breakdown completely and they desperately need God to step in and step in fast. Genesis 30:1 NLT, When Rachel saw that she wasn't having any children for Jacob, she became jealous of her sister. She pleaded with Jacob "give me children or I die." Faced with the challenge of barrenness Rachel's heart was full of pain, in her frustration she directed her anger and pain at her husband Jacob. There is a Yoruba adage that says “Eni to kan lo mo” meaning” It's the person that is affected by a situation that really know what it feels like to be in that situation.” If we can really understand people's pain, we won't trivialize their experience while we try to comfort and encourage them in a difficult situation. Different cultures attached different levels of importance to delay in child birth after marriage, in the setting Rachel found herself, it was so intense that she even considered death if she wouldn't have children. This position is still prevalent in many African culture today, delay in child birth after marriage or to be childless can put a lot of pressure on the marriage especially the woman. In spite of this, one thing I have come to know- God really intervenes. A case I know firsthand is my brother and his wife, the children did not come in the first 8 years of their marriage, it was tough but today they have 3 love children. You may be facing a desperate situation today, be encouraged God still intervenes in people's lives today and He will show up for you in Jesus' Name God bless you and enjoy the rest of your day

Rachel Kodanaz has been speaking passionately to national audiences of all sizes for 20 years, addressing all aspects of change, growth, and acceptance that comes with embracing life's challenges – those expected and unexpected. Through her books, Living with Loss, One Day at a Time and Grief in the Workplace, Rachel offers a wealth of knowledge, inspiration and practical advice for those who have lost a loved one or are supporting someone who has lost a loved one. In this week's episode, Rachel shares timeless advice on how you can return to the workplace and get the most out of your work environment as you go through grief.    Key Takeaways: Grief in the workplace is still a real issue.  A little bit about Rachel and her grief story.  When Rachel's husband passed, she lost a bit of her meaning and purpose, especially when it came to work.  “How can I help?” Is such a loaded question. You can figure out how to help someone if you just observe them and what they are struggling with.  No two people will behave the same when it comes to grief and work.  When Rachel lost her husband, she didn't even acknowledge she was a widow, she was just trying to survive as a newly single mom.  Susan felt like there was just a world falling down on her at work, and she wanted somebody to just help her.  So many people don't know what they need after a sudden life change.  What's the difference between a grief coach and a situational coach?  Managers! Are you listening? You can take a very painful experience and turn that into a beautiful and supportive environment for the griever.  Susan has been put in situations where an employee was grieving, and she just didn't know or even have the context at the time to support them.  A co-worker told Susan to not talk about her loss, in fear of making someone else;who recently lost a parent; angry. Despite them trying to be helpful, it was so hurtful.  Susan ended up leaving her job because that's the one thing she felt like she had control over.  Grief, unfortunately, is a timeline in the workplace, and you can rarely put a timeline on grief.  As an employer, you can ask empowering questions to help your employee during such a rough time.  What piece of advice does Rachel have for both the grieving employee and the employer?  Companies! Do not get this wrong. Seek additional resources if your team member recently lost someone.    Resources: Rachelkodanaz.com Rachel on LinkedIn

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, ‘It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.'33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.' So she named him Simeon.34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.' So he was named Levi.35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord.' So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.30 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I'll die!'2 Jacob became angry with her and said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?'3 Then she said, ‘Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.'4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, ‘God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.' Because of this she named him Dan.7 Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, ‘I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.' So she named him Naphtali.9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, ‘What good fortune!' So she named him Gad.12 Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, ‘How happy I am! The women will call me happy.' So she named him Asher.14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.'15 But she said to her, ‘Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?'‘Very well,' Rachel said, ‘he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes.'16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. ‘You must sleep with me,' she said. ‘I have hired you with my son's mandrakes.' So he slept with her that night.17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, ‘God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.' So she named him Issachar.19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, ‘God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honour, because I have borne him six sons.' So she named him Zebulun.21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, ‘God has taken away my disgrace.' 24 She named him Joseph, and said, ‘May the Lord add to me another son.'

When Rachel was faced with a difficult journey in caring for her newborn son, fear crept in very quickly.  She experienced feelings of inadequacy and helplessness.  The normal things, like catching a cold, that happen to every child left Rachel in a state of fight of flight.  She was absolultey petrified.  Although unique, Rachel's story is very relateable to anyone who has experienced anxiety or fear.

Rachel Drori was gainfully employed and pregnant when she had the idea for Daily Harvest. She says she had all the reasons not to start the company, but knew the perfect “right time” would never come.   Beside saying “Why Not Now?” to her idea, Rachel shares the more tactical strategies she used to measure whether she was ready to start her company. She identified the worst possible case scenario that could come out of this journey (one of Amy Jo's five Renegade Rules!) and realized it was worth taking the risk. When Rachel's customer base was 5x the size of her inner circle, she knew it was time to go all in on Daily Harvest.   Rachel shares so many tangible tips for entrepreneurs on this episode of Why Not Now? She says she learned more from starting a company than she did during the two years of her MBA program!   Rachel also tells Amy Jo about the responsibility she feels toward her customers and her employees, the pros and cons of raising money from investors when starting a business, and investing in female founders.   Learn more about Rachel Follow Rachel on Instagram   To learn more about the Renegade Accelerator, click here. Get Amy Jo's newsletter.   Follow Amy Jo… Instagram Twitter Facebook Why Not Now? Instagram Buy Amy Jo's Book

Warning: This episode contains discussion of domestic abuse. Listener discretion is advised. Rachel Snow is a Certified High Conflict Divorce & Custody Coach. She is located in Colorado and can work with clients anywhere! She lives in Westminster with her partner Seth, daughter, and bonus daughter. Before she was a High Conflict Divorce Coach she was a massage therapist and birth doula. When Rachel isn't empowering her clients she enjoys connecting in sisterhood, spending time with her family and pets, and traveling. We dive into the topic of divorce and Rachel gives her top divorce tips. We chat about the process of divorce, the dynamics that can play out such as abuse in the partnership that lead to high conflict, and the family court system and some of the things that are broken there. Divorce is hard and can hold a lot of shame and things that are difficult to talk about. I love that we are able to normalize open communication about it. If you're suffering from any form of domestic abuse, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or 1-800-799-7233. http://thehotline.org/ (TheHotline.org) is also available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Connect with Rachel Snow: https://www.luminarydivorcecoaching.com (www.luminarydivorcecoaching.com) https://www.facebook.com/luminarydivorcecoaching (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/luminarydivorcecoaching/ (Instagram) https://www.pinterest.com/LuminaryDivorceCoaching/ (Pinterest) https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-snow-8668a0102/ (LinkedIn) Want more of The We Podcast? To listen to more awesome episodes on Loudspeaker.fm or on any of your favorite podcasting apps. The We Spot is your go-to place for intentional growth, connection, authenticity, and encouragement. We would love to connect with you! Find us on: https://www.facebook.com/thewespot (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/thewespot/ (Instagram) https://www.thewespot.com/ (www.thewespot.com) Thank you for listening and being a part of this community! It means a lot to us! Support this podcast

Warning: This episode contains discussion of domestic abuse. Listener discretion is advised. Rachel Snow is a Certified High Conflict Divorce & Custody Coach. She is located in Colorado and can work with clients anywhere! She lives in Westminster with her partner Seth, daughter, and bonus daughter. Before she was a High Conflict Divorce Coach she was a massage therapist and birth doula. When Rachel isn't empowering her clients she enjoys connecting in sisterhood, spending time with her family and pets, and traveling. We dive into the topic of divorce and Rachel gives her top divorce tips. We chat about the process of divorce, the dynamics that can play out such as abuse in the partnership that lead to high conflict, and the family court system and some of the things that are broken there. Divorce is hard and can hold a lot of shame and things that are difficult to talk about. I love that we are able to normalize open communication about it. If you're suffering from any form of domestic abuse, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or 1-800-799-7233. http://thehotline.org/ (TheHotline.org) is also available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Connect with Rachel Snow: https://www.luminarydivorcecoaching.com (www.luminarydivorcecoaching.com) https://www.facebook.com/luminarydivorcecoaching (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/luminarydivorcecoaching/ (Instagram) https://www.pinterest.com/LuminaryDivorceCoaching/ (Pinterest) https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-snow-8668a0102/ (LinkedIn) Want more of The We Podcast? To listen to more awesome episodes on Loudspeaker.fm or on any of your favorite podcasting apps. The We Spot is your go-to place for intentional growth, connection, authenticity, and encouragement. We would love to connect with you! Find us on: https://www.facebook.com/thewespot (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/thewespot/ (Instagram) https://www.thewespot.com/ (www.thewespot.com) Thank you for listening and being a part of this community! It means a lot to us! Support this podcast

Today's siyum is sponsored by Lynn Horwitz for the 6th yartzeit of רחל יונינה בת ישראל יעקב ולאה רייזל  which will be on  the first night of Pesach, Leil HaSeder. "It seems fitting to sponsor this siyum in Rachel’s memory as it was Rachel who inspired me to start daf yomi.  When Rachel decided to go to Frisch for high school, to help her catch up to the boys who would be in her honors Talmud shiur, we arranged her to have a Sunday morning Talmud "boot camp".  The Rebbi insisted that a parent attend as well so I joined her and together we learned basic gemara vocabulary and how to parse a sugya. While Rachel used these skills to hold her own in shiur, in an attempt to keep up with her growing knowledge of Torah, I began daf yomi, a cycle I completed with the help of Rabbanit Michelle Farber’s podcast. While Rachel’s years on this earth were short, her intense embrace of family, friend, nature and learning made a strong impression on and continues to inspire all who knew her.  תנצבה And by Allison and Akiva Shapiro in honor of their daughter Meira’s completion of Masechet Pesachim and dedication to daf yomi. And by Avigail Gordon in honor of her daughters. "Tzipora, whose love of learning and dedication to daf yomi inspired me to start this journey in the first place, and Adira, my Pesach baby, who got a headstart in her Talmud learning as she grew inside me. May your lives always be full of Torah learning and commitment, and may you continue to know and learn from and with inspirational female scholars like those in the Hadran community. It is my great honor to learn with them, and with you." Why did the rabbis determine that meat that was pigul and notar, that was left beyond the time that was permitted to eat the meat, were to make hands that touched them impure? What were they trying to prevent? And what proportion is the requisite amount that is needed to transfer impurity? There was be a blessing for eating the meat of the Paschal sacrifice and for the chagiga sacrifice. Does a blessing on one of them exempt the other? And if so, which one? Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Akiva disagree. What is the basis for the controversy? In the redemption of the firstborn son, pidyon haben, the father blesses the blessing on the redemption. Who blesses the blessing shehechiyanu - the priest who benefits because he receives money or the father who benefits from the observance of the mitzvah? It is ruled that the father of the son blesses that blessing also.

Today's siyum is sponsored by Lynn Horwitz for the 6th yartzeit of רחל יונינה בת ישראל יעקב ולאה רייזל  which will be on  the first night of Pesach, Leil HaSeder. "It seems fitting to sponsor this siyum in Rachel’s memory as it was Rachel who inspired me to start daf yomi.  When Rachel decided to go to Frisch for high school, to help her catch up to the boys who would be in her honors Talmud shiur, we arranged her to have a Sunday morning Talmud "boot camp".  The Rebbi insisted that a parent attend as well so I joined her and together we learned basic gemara vocabulary and how to parse a sugya. While Rachel used these skills to hold her own in shiur, in an attempt to keep up with her growing knowledge of Torah, I began daf yomi, a cycle I completed with the help of Rabbanit Michelle Farber’s podcast. While Rachel’s years on this earth were short, her intense embrace of family, friend, nature and learning made a strong impression on and continues to inspire all who knew her.  תנצבה And by Allison and Akiva Shapiro in honor of their daughter Meira’s completion of Masechet Pesachim and dedication to daf yomi. And by Avigail Gordon in honor of her daughters. "Tzipora, whose love of learning and dedication to daf yomi inspired me to start this journey in the first place, and Adira, my Pesach baby, who got a headstart in her Talmud learning as she grew inside me. May your lives always be full of Torah learning and commitment, and may you continue to know and learn from and with inspirational female scholars like those in the Hadran community. It is my great honor to learn with them, and with you." Why did the rabbis determine that meat that was pigul and notar, that was left beyond the time that was permitted to eat the meat, were to make hands that touched them impure? What were they trying to prevent? And what proportion is the requisite amount that is needed to transfer impurity? There was be a blessing for eating the meat of the Paschal sacrifice and for the chagiga sacrifice. Does a blessing on one of them exempt the other? And if so, which one? Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Akiva disagree. What is the basis for the controversy? In the redemption of the firstborn son, pidyon haben, the father blesses the blessing on the redemption. Who blesses the blessing shehechiyanu - the priest who benefits because he receives money or the father who benefits from the observance of the mitzvah? It is ruled that the father of the son blesses that blessing also.

Rachel Awtrey is a podcaster and online encourager, and like a lot of us--she is in a place where she never thought she'd find herself. Is life ever cookie cutter?!   When Rachel was in high school, her dad passed away suddenly during a rock climbing accident. The loss of her dad left her with unimaginable grief, doubts, and hardships. The legacy that her dad left behind though was a constant reminder to Rachel that she had two choices: would she choose to sit in her grief and question God's plan, or would she do her best to use her story to carry out her dad's legacy?   As you know we are talking about using our trials as victory stories this month, and Rachel was the perfect addition to this line up. Listen to today's episode to see which road she took and find the encouragement that you need to take those hardships that you are going through and use them to live your life to the fullest.   You've got this friends, and we are always here to cheer you on! Things We Discussed In The Episode/Episode Highlights:  How doubt can be normal, but the importance of not staying in that place The importance of having supporters and being a supporter to people in your life The choices we can make when being faced with trials and tribulations How our trials can help catapult us into living life to the fullest if we allow them More on Rachel Awtrey: www.BehindtheBliss.com  Use Code Millennial15 for 15% off store! More on The Millennial Mission/Links Mentioned in Episode: Follow us on IG: @bethanyandcorey Sign Up for exclusive discounts, benefits, and top secret info only our podcast listeners get! www.millennialmission.co Press Inquiries/Contact: bethany@millennialmission.co

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 33 Psalm 33 (Listen) The Steadfast Love of the Lord 33   Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous!    Praise befits the upright.2   Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre;    make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!3   Sing to him a new song;    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 4   For the word of the LORD is upright,    and all his work is done in faithfulness.5   He loves righteousness and justice;    the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. 6   By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,    and by the breath of his mouth all their host.7   He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;    he puts the deeps in storehouses. 8   Let all the earth fear the LORD;    let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!9   For he spoke, and it came to be;    he commanded, and it stood firm. 10   The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;    he frustrates the plans of the peoples.11   The counsel of the LORD stands forever,    the plans of his heart to all generations.12   Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,    the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! 13   The LORD looks down from heaven;    he sees all the children of man;14   from where he sits enthroned he looks out    on all the inhabitants of the earth,15   he who fashions the hearts of them all    and observes all their deeds.16   The king is not saved by his great army;    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.17   The war horse is a false hope for salvation,    and by its great might it cannot rescue. 18   Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,    on those who hope in his steadfast love,19   that he may deliver their soul from death    and keep them alive in famine. 20   Our soul waits for the LORD;    he is our help and our shield.21   For our heart is glad in him,    because we trust in his holy name.22   Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,    even as we hope in you. (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Genesis 29:31–30:43 Genesis 29:31–30:43 (Listen) Jacob’s Children 31 When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben,1 for she said, “Because the LORD has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” 33 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon.2 34 Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi.3 35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she called his name Judah.4 Then she ceased bearing. 30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf,5 that even I may have children6 through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.7 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings8 I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.9 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad.10 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.11 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.12 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.13 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph,14 saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!” Jacob’s Prosperity 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that15 the LORD has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Footnotes [1] 29:32 Reuben means See, a son [2] 29:33 Simeon sounds like the Hebrew for heard [3] 29:34 Levi sounds like the Hebrew for attached [4] 29:35 Judah sounds like the Hebrew for praise [5] 30:3 Hebrew on my knees [6] 30:3 Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children [7] 30:6 Dan sounds like the Hebrew for judged [8] 30:8 Hebrew With wrestlings of God [9] 30:8 Naphtali sounds like the Hebrew for wrestling [10] 30:11 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for good fortune [11] 30:13 Asher sounds like the Hebrew for happy [12] 30:18 Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for wages, or hire [13] 30:20 Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew for honor [14] 30:24 Joseph means May he add, and sounds like the Hebrew for taken away [15] 30:27 Or have become rich and (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: 2 Chronicles 7 2 Chronicles 7 (Listen) Fire from Heaven 7 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” The Dedication of the Temple 4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the LORD. 5 King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6 The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the LORD that King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry;1 opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood. 7 And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat. 8 At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt. 9 And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the prosperity2 that the LORD had granted to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people. If My People Pray 11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 17 And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, 18 then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’ 19 “But if you3 turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will pluck you4 up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ 22 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’” Footnotes [1] 7:6 Hebrew by their hand [2] 7:10 Or good [3] 7:19 The Hebrew for you is plural here [4] 7:20 Hebrew them; twice in this verse (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Luke 23:26–56 Luke 23:26–56 (Listen) The Crucifixion 26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” 32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”1 And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him,2 “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him,3 saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” The Death of Jesus 44 It was now about the sixth hour,4 and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,5 45 while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. Jesus Is Buried 50 Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. 54 It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.6 55 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. Footnotes [1] 23:34 Some manuscripts omit the sentence And Jesus . . . what they do [2] 23:38 Some manuscripts add in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew [3] 23:39 Or blasphemed him [4] 23:44 That is, noon [5] 23:44 That is, 3 p.m. [6] 23:54 Greek was dawning (ESV)

With family: Genesis 30; Mark 1 Genesis 30 (Listen) 30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf,1 that even I may have children2 through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.3 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings4 I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.5 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad.6 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.7 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.8 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.9 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph,10 saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!” Jacob’s Prosperity 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that11 the LORD has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Footnotes [1] 30:3 Hebrew on my knees [2] 30:3 Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children [3] 30:6 Dan sounds like the Hebrew for judged [4] 30:8 Hebrew With wrestlings of God [5] 30:8 Naphtali sounds like the Hebrew for wrestling [6] 30:11 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for good fortune [7] 30:13 Asher sounds like the Hebrew for happy [8] 30:18 Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for wages, or hire [9] 30:20 Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew for honor [10] 30:24 Joseph means May he add, and sounds like the Hebrew for taken away [11] 30:27 Or have become rich and (ESV) Mark 1 (Listen) John the Baptist Prepares the Way 1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.1 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,2   “Behold, I send my messenger before your face,    who will prepare your way,3   the voice of one crying in the wilderness:    ‘Prepare3 the way of the Lord,    make his paths straight,’” 4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” The Baptism of Jesus 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;4 with you I am well pleased.” The Temptation of Jesus 12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. Jesus Begins His Ministry 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;5 repent and believe in the gospel.” Jesus Calls the First Disciples 16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”6 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit 21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. Jesus Heals Many 29 And immediately he7 left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. Jesus Preaches in Galilee 35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. Jesus Cleanses a Leper 40 And a leper8 came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus9 sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. Footnotes [1] 1:1 Some manuscripts omit the Son of God [2] 1:2 Some manuscripts in the prophets [3] 1:3 Or crying: Prepare in the wilderness [4] 1:11 Or my Son, my (or the) Beloved [5] 1:15 Or the kingdom of God has come near [6] 1:17 The Greek word anthropoi refers here to both men and women [7] 1:29 Some manuscripts they [8] 1:40 Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13 [9] 1:43 Greek he; also verse 45 (ESV) In private: Esther 6; Romans 1 Esther 6 (Listen) The King Honors Mordecai 6 On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. 2 And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana1 and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 And the king said, “What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” The king’s young men who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” 4 And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows2 that he had prepared for him. 5 And the king’s young men told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” 6 So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” 7 And Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 8 let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown3 is set. 9 And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.’” 10 Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry; take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.” 11 So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.” 12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. 13 And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.” Esther Reveals Haman’s Plot 14 While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared. Footnotes [1] 6:2 Bigthana is an alternate spelling of Bigthan (see 2:21) [2] 6:4 Or wooden beam (see note on 2:23) [3] 6:8 Or headdress (ESV) Romans 1 (Listen) Greeting 1 Paul, a servant1 of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David2 according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Longing to Go to Rome 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,3 that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians,4 both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. The Righteous Shall Live by Faith 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,5 as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”6 God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,7 in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Footnotes [1] 1:1 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface [2] 1:3 Or who came from the offspring of David [3] 1:13 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters [4] 1:14 That is, non-Greeks [5] 1:17 Or beginning and ending in faith [6] 1:17 Or The one who by faith is righteous shall live [7] 1:20 Or clearly perceived from the creation of the world (ESV)

Old Testament: Genesis 30 Genesis 30 (Listen) 30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf,1 that even I may have children2 through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.3 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings4 I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.5 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad.6 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.7 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.8 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.9 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph,10 saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!” Jacob’s Prosperity 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that11 the LORD has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Footnotes [1] 30:3 Hebrew on my knees [2] 30:3 Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children [3] 30:6 Dan sounds like the Hebrew for judged [4] 30:8 Hebrew With wrestlings of God [5] 30:8 Naphtali sounds like the Hebrew for wrestling [6] 30:11 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for good fortune [7] 30:13 Asher sounds like the Hebrew for happy [8] 30:18 Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for wages, or hire [9] 30:20 Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew for honor [10] 30:24 Joseph means May he add, and sounds like the Hebrew for taken away [11] 30:27 Or have become rich and (ESV) New Testament: Matthew 10:1–23 Matthew 10:1–23 (Listen) The Twelve Apostles 10 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;1 4 Simon the Zealot,2 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles 5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’3 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers,4 cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. 9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics5 or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. 11 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. Persecution Will Come 16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. Footnotes [1] 10:3 Some manuscripts Lebbaeus, or Lebbaeus called Thaddaeus [2] 10:4 Greek kananaios, meaning zealot [3] 10:7 Or The kingdom of heaven has come near [4] 10:8 Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13 [5] 10:10 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 16 Psalm 16 (Listen) You Will Not Abandon My Soul A Miktam1 of David. 16   Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.2   I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;    I have no good apart from you.” 3   As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,    in whom is all my delight.2 4   The sorrows of those who run after3 another god shall multiply;    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out    or take their names on my lips. 5   The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;    you hold my lot.6   The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 7   I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;    in the night also my heart instructs me.48   I have set the LORD always before me;    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 9   Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being5 rejoices;    my flesh also dwells secure.10   For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,    or let your holy one see corruption.6 11   You make known to me the path of life;    in your presence there is fullness of joy;    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Footnotes [1] 16:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term [2] 16:3 Or To the saints in the land, the excellent in whom is all my delight, I say: [3] 16:4 Or who acquire [4] 16:7 Hebrew my kidneys instruct me [5] 16:9 Hebrew my glory [6] 16:10 Or see the pit (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 4:20–27 Proverbs 4:20–27 (Listen) 20   My son, be attentive to my words;    incline your ear to my sayings.21   Let them not escape from your sight;    keep them within your heart.22   For they are life to those who find them,    and healing to all their1 flesh.23   Keep your heart with all vigilance,    for from it flow the springs of life.24   Put away from you crooked speech,    and put devious talk far from you.25   Let your eyes look directly forward,    and your gaze be straight before you.26   Ponder2 the path of your feet;    then all your ways will be sure.27   Do not swerve to the right or to the left;    turn your foot away from evil. Footnotes [1] 4:22 Hebrew his [2] 4:26 Or Make level (ESV)

Old Testament: Genesis 30 Genesis 30 (Listen) 30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf,1 that even I may have children2 through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.3 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings4 I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.5 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad.6 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.7 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.8 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.9 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph,10 saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!” Jacob’s Prosperity 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that11 the LORD has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Footnotes [1] 30:3 Hebrew on my knees [2] 30:3 Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children [3] 30:6 Dan sounds like the Hebrew for judged [4] 30:8 Hebrew With wrestlings of God [5] 30:8 Naphtali sounds like the Hebrew for wrestling [6] 30:11 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for good fortune [7] 30:13 Asher sounds like the Hebrew for happy [8] 30:18 Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for wages, or hire [9] 30:20 Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew for honor [10] 30:24 Joseph means May he add, and sounds like the Hebrew for taken away [11] 30:27 Or have become rich and (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 16 Psalm 16 (Listen) You Will Not Abandon My Soul A Miktam1 of David. 16   Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.2   I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;    I have no good apart from you.” 3   As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,    in whom is all my delight.2 4   The sorrows of those who run after3 another god shall multiply;    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out    or take their names on my lips. 5   The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;    you hold my lot.6   The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 7   I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;    in the night also my heart instructs me.48   I have set the LORD always before me;    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 9   Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being5 rejoices;    my flesh also dwells secure.10   For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,    or let your holy one see corruption.6 11   You make known to me the path of life;    in your presence there is fullness of joy;    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Footnotes [1] 16:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term [2] 16:3 Or To the saints in the land, the excellent in whom is all my delight, I say: [3] 16:4 Or who acquire [4] 16:7 Hebrew my kidneys instruct me [5] 16:9 Hebrew my glory [6] 16:10 Or see the pit (ESV) New Testament: Matthew 19 Matthew 19 (Listen) Teaching About Divorce 19 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”1 10 The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” 11 But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” Let the Children Come to Me 13 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” 15 And he laid his hands on them and went away. The Rich Young Man 16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world,2 when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold3 and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Footnotes [1] 19:9 Some manuscripts add and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery; other manuscripts except for sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery [2] 19:28 Greek in the regeneration [3] 19:29 Some manuscripts manifold (ESV)

A Stranger at the Door by Jason Pinter Interview From the Amazon bestselling author of Hide Away comes the gripping second installment of the Rachel Marin Thriller series. Rachel Marin is in a good place. After years of struggle, the single mother has found both a stable, loving relationship and a new purpose: putting her investigative skills to work solving crimes for the local PD. But just as the pieces of her life are finally starting to fall into place, her teenaged son’s teacher is gruesomely murdered, starting a domino effect that shatters her peaceful existence. When Rachel discovers an ominous email the teacher sent to her just before his death, she knows she must help bring his killer to justice. But soon a figure from her past reappears, threatening to expose Rachel’s darkest secrets if she doesn’t tread lightly. And when her son is recruited by a shadowy businessman who may be connected to the murder, Rachel knows this has just gotten very, very personal. Someone out there is dead set on keeping this grisly cover-up good and buried, which means if Rachel’s not careful, it’s only a matter of time before her dream life becomes her worst nightmare.About Jason Pinter Jason Pinter is the internationally bestselling author of HIDE AWAY, the first Rachel Marin novel, and the Henry Parker thriller series (THE MARK, THE GUILTY, THE STOLEN, THE FURY, and THE DARKNESS), as well as the acclaimed standalone thriller THE CASTLE, and two children's books. He has been nominated for the Thriller Award, Strand Critics Award, Barry Award, Shamus Award, and more. THE FURY and THE DARKNESS were both chosen as Indie Next selections, and THE MARK, THE STOLEN, and THE FURY were all named to The Strand's Best Books of the Year list. THE MARK was optioned to be a feature film, and there are over 1.5 million copies of Jason's books in print worldwide. He is the Founder and Publisher of Polis Books, and was named one of Publisher Weekly's inaugural Star Watch honorees, which "recognizes young publishing professionals who have distinguished themselves as future leaders of the industry." He has written for The New Republic, Entrepreneur, Esquire, and The Daily Beast, and been featured in Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Mystery Scene and more. He lives in Hoboken, NJ with his wife and their two daughters. Visit him at www.JasonPinter.com, and follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @JasonPinter.

Morning: Genesis 29–30 Genesis 29–30 (Listen) Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel 29 Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. 2 As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3 and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well. 4 Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” 5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” 6 He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well; and see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!” 7 He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.” 8 But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.” 9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. 13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month. 15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were weak,1 but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. 18 Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. 21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. 24 (Laban gave2 his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) 25 And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” 26 Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27 Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” 28 Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 (Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.) 30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. Jacob’s Children 31 When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben,3 for she said, “Because the LORD has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” 33 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon.4 34 Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi.5 35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she called his name Judah.6 Then she ceased bearing. 30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf,7 that even I may have children8 through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.9 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings10 I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.11 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad.12 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.13 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.14 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.15 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph,16 saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!” Jacob’s Prosperity 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that17 the LORD has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Footnotes [1] 29:17 Or soft [2] 29:24 Or had given; also verse 29 [3] 29:32 Reuben means See, a son [4] 29:33 Simeon sounds like the Hebrew for heard [5] 29:34 Levi sounds like the Hebrew for attached [6] 29:35 Judah sounds like the Hebrew for praise [7] 30:3 Hebrew on my knees [8] 30:3 Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children [9] 30:6 Dan sounds like the Hebrew for judged [10] 30:8 Hebrew With wrestlings of God [11] 30:8 Naphtali sounds like the Hebrew for wrestling [12] 30:11 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for good fortune [13] 30:13 Asher sounds like the Hebrew for happy [14] 30:18 Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for wages, or hire [15] 30:20 Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew for honor [16] 30:24 Joseph means May he add, and sounds like the Hebrew for taken away [17] 30:27 Or have become rich and (ESV) Evening: Matthew 10:1–23 Matthew 10:1–23 (Listen) The Twelve Apostles 10 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;1 4 Simon the Zealot,2 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles 5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’3 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers,4 cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. 9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics5 or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. 11 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. Persecution Will Come 16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. Footnotes [1] 10:3 Some manuscripts Lebbaeus, or Lebbaeus called Thaddaeus [2] 10:4 Greek kananaios, meaning zealot [3] 10:7 Or The kingdom of heaven has come near [4] 10:8 Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13 [5] 10:10 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin (ESV)

Genesis 30–31 Genesis 30–31 (Listen) 30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf,1 that even I may have children2 through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.3 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings4 I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.5 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad.6 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.7 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.8 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.9 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph,10 saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!” Jacob’s Prosperity 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that11 the LORD has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Jacob Flees from Laban 31 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. 3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” 4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was 5 and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. 9 Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. 10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’” 14 Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house? 15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. 16 All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.” 17 So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 And Jacob tricked12 Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. 21 He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates,13 and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. 22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” 25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? 28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. 29 It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your14 father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?” 31 Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32 Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods. 36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37 For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. 38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.” 43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? 44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha,15 but Jacob called it Galeed.16 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 and Mizpah,17 for he said, “The LORD watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” 51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, 54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. 55 18 Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home. Footnotes [1] 30:3 Hebrew on my knees [2] 30:3 Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children [3] 30:6 Dan sounds like the Hebrew for judged [4] 30:8 Hebrew With wrestlings of God [5] 30:8 Naphtali sounds like the Hebrew for wrestling [6] 30:11 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for good fortune [7] 30:13 Asher sounds like the Hebrew for happy [8] 30:18 Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for wages, or hire [9] 30:20 Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew for honor [10] 30:24 Joseph means May he add, and sounds like the Hebrew for taken away [11] 30:27 Or have become rich and [12] 31:20 Hebrew stole the heart of; also verses 26, 27 [13] 31:21 Hebrew the River [14] 31:29 The Hebrew for your is plural here [15] 31:47 Aramaic the heap of witness [16] 31:47 Hebrew the heap of witness [17] 31:49 Mizpah means watchpost [18] 31:55 Ch 32:1 in Hebrew (ESV)

Genesis 30–31 Genesis 30–31 (Listen) 30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf,1 that even I may have children2 through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.3 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings4 I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.5 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad.6 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.7 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.8 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.9 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph,10 saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!” Jacob’s Prosperity 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that11 the LORD has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Jacob Flees from Laban 31 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. 3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” 4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was 5 and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. 9 Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. 10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’” 14 Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house? 15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. 16 All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.” 17 So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 And Jacob tricked12 Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. 21 He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates,13 and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. 22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” 25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? 28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. 29 It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your14 father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?” 31 Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32 Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods. 36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37 For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. 38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.” 43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? 44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha,15 but Jacob called it Galeed.16 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 and Mizpah,17 for he said, “The LORD watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” 51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, 54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. 55 18 Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home. Footnotes [1] 30:3 Hebrew on my knees [2] 30:3 Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children [3] 30:6 Dan sounds like the Hebrew for judged [4] 30:8 Hebrew With wrestlings of God [5] 30:8 Naphtali sounds like the Hebrew for wrestling [6] 30:11 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for good fortune [7] 30:13 Asher sounds like the Hebrew for happy [8] 30:18 Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for wages, or hire [9] 30:20 Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew for honor [10] 30:24 Joseph means May he add, and sounds like the Hebrew for taken away [11] 30:27 Or have become rich and [12] 31:20 Hebrew stole the heart of; also verses 26, 27 [13] 31:21 Hebrew the River [14] 31:29 The Hebrew for your is plural here [15] 31:47 Aramaic the heap of witness [16] 31:47 Hebrew the heap of witness [17] 31:49 Mizpah means watchpost [18] 31:55 Ch 32:1 in Hebrew (ESV)

In this episode, Arthi is in conversation with Rachel Duffy, who is passionate about her work with parents, families and leaders.When Rachel became a parent to 3 children, she had to examine her own beliefs and conditionings and she saw how she was parenting from ego and not authentic connection. She shifted her focus, dove deep in learning about Conscious Parenting and obtained a coaching certification through Dr. Shefali's Conscious Parenting Coaching Institute. Rachel utilizesthis paradigm to focus on the parent, rather than the child, to create life lasting change in the parent-child relationship.Rachel shares insights about her background, the tough but enlightening journey of self-awareness, how that is shaping her current reality both personally and in her business, while offering up some wonderful lessons and advice for our own pursuit of growth, development and enduring relationships with our kids. If you're a parent, this is one episode you do not want to miss!If you enjoyed this episode, then do rate, write a review and share with others. Share too, your own insights from your journey based on themes from the episode - what has worked or hasn't for you. We can all learn from each other.#FindYourPrerna #beBold #bebrave

Rachel Drori has come a long way from the days of filling a shopping cart at Trader Joe's and packing up healthy, frozen meals for delivery to customers all around New York — all while being nine-months pregnant. As the Founder and CEO of Daily Harvest, Rachel bootstrapped her company from the very beginning, and eventually had a few big names reach out to invest, including folks like Serena Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2019, Daily Harvest generated more than $125M in revenue and the company is growing. So what makes her meal-delivery service different from the others? The heavy focus on customer-centricity.When Rachel founded Daily Harvest, her goal was to build a customer-driven company that connected people with food that was designed specifically for them. But what did that look like from a practical standpoint and what can others learn from Rachel’s journey? On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, we’ll give you the answers to just that, so stay tuned!Main Takeaways:Nimble and Agile: In marketing and customer acquisition, it’s a mistake to be reliant on any one channel. Having the ability to understand and follow the trends, and then meet potential customers where they are at the moment they are online will allow you to actually bring in new customers reliably.Call and Response: Customers are less interested in having a place to share their thoughts than they are in having their feedback responded to by the brand they are interacting with. In every channel, there should be a way to engage in two-way conversations with your customers and then a method to follow through on those customers’ needs in a way that everyone can see.High On Your Own Supply: Having control of your supply chain is one of the best ways to create agility within your organization. But sometimes it takes some technology investment to bring all your suppliers on board.For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.---Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce---Transcript:Stephanie:Welcome back to Up Next in Commerce. This is Stephanie Postles, your host and co-founder of mission.org. Today on the show, we have Rachel Drori, the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest. Rachel, welcome, welcome.Rachel:Hi, thanks for having me.Stephanie:Thanks for coming on. So yesterday in the mail, I got an amazing box of Daily Harvest. And it was the perfect way for me to understand exactly what it was and enjoyed this morning. But to kick it off, maybe I'll let you explain what Daily Harvest is.Rachel:First of all, I need to know what you tried first, and then....Stephanie:I tried a smoothie, and today I'm going to be trying one of the soups in there. I think there was a lentil soup that you just add water to. I'm like, "This is what I need in my life, something that you just add water to or just add coconut water to make a smoothie and it's done."Rachel:I love it. Yes. So I started Daily Harvest about five years ago. And the mission is simple. It's really to take care of food so that food can take care of all of us. And we do this by starting at the root with our farmers. And we grow the best fruits and vegetables in the best way possible. And then we make incredible food, which I'm glad you got to try. [inaudible] smoothies and flatbreads, ice cream, alongside with people who eat it, our customers. And the idea is that you can then stock your home with convenient, but also clean and delicious food that's built on real fruits and vegetables. And part of our magic is really connecting people with food that was designed specifically for them so that you're really always stocked with a whole food kitchen of clean food when you want it and it's ready in minutes.Stephanie:I love that. I think on my Twitter, I posted a picture of my freezer and what it looks like. And it was kind of sad because there was like waffles next to one of them. I'm like, "What?" This is my life. I have waffles and then now a new experience that I don't think I'll be able to step away from after this.Rachel:Well, that's what I like to hear. But it's interesting, people buying additional freezers in the last few months. And I'm like, "I support this message. I support this very much."Stephanie:That is awesome. So tell me a little bit about the early days of when you were starting it. I mean, I'm thinking about all the different logistics and the supply chain and working with farmers. And I want to kind of hear how it all got started.Rachel:So as I started pulling on the strings really trying to figure out why the food that I wanted didn't exist, what I realized is that it was because food is not customer driven. The way food is created is actually really far from that. And the reason food is not customer driven is actually a true systemic problem. So as I set out to start Daily Harvest, part of what I wanted to do was really solve some of the systemic challenges with food. Not only the convenience and the health factor, but also why do we have to choose between preserving ourselves and preserving the planet all of the time with packaging and sustainability and regenerative farming practices and all the stuff that makes our food systems so broken? So back in those early days, I had these really grand ambitions, still have the grand ambitions, but less power to actually make them happen in those days. And what I did was I faked it all until I was actually able to do them.Rachel:So I was buying our ingredients at Trader Joe's. I wasn't telling stories of things that were going to happen in future but buying ingredients at Trader Joe's, got a commercial kitchen in Long Island City. And my right hand and my left hand were my first team members, bagging all those ingredients up into food that I knew solved all of the customer problems that I had surfaced to myself but also in friends and family, and started delivering across New York City and really trying to see if I was solving problems for people other than myself. And it turned out I was. And I'd quit my job and dove in head first.Stephanie:That is amazing. So were you personally delivering a lot of this items in the beginning?Rachel:I was delivering everything.Stephanie:Oh gosh. Any crazy stories of the delivery days?Rachel:Yeah. So I was nine months pregnant towards the end of the bootstrap MVP period. And I could no longer get behind the wheel of my car. But I had a 16-year-old nephew who could drive with an adult.Stephanie:Oh my gosh, getting his permit hours with you?Rachel:Yes, yes. It was ridiculous. So I would pick him up. I would pay him like $15 an hour to drive around and hop in and out. And I would sit in the car like a beached whale. And he would run these boxes up to people's apartments. And I would be like, "Nope, can't give us a ticket. I'm in here."Stephanie:And I'm pregnant. So even more of a reason. Don't try. That's awesome. So then around that time, it looks like you were also... Was that when you were also raising money?Rachel:So I did raise money... well, so I'd raised a few rounds at this point. I actually tried to raise money for a Series C at that phase and it didn't go very well to be honest. People didn't really understand how I had this grandiose vision and I was delivering smoothies. They just couldn't connect the dots. And I guess it was too much of a leap for people. So I decided to bootstrap for as long as I possibly could. And when I say bootstrap, I think people assume you have money to burn. When I say scrappy, literally doing things like having my nephew deliver the food, and I created the website entirely by myself and the packaging and printed everything. There was no money spent to be clear.Rachel:And raised money officially right after I had my first child and decided I needed... I was kind of choking off growth and needed to take it from the MVP stage to something much bigger. And we launched nationally in 2016, which was almost like a year after that period, and then raised our Series A actually when I was pregnant with my second child, which was super fun.Stephanie:What kind of experience did you have being pregnant and raising money or trying to raise money? What happened during that? Because I know I have some personal experiences that maybe weren't always the most positive of people just being like, "How do you plan on running a business and you're pregnant?" Even now, knowing I have three kids, people saying, "How do you plan on running a business with three kids?" And what kind of stories do you have around that? Hopefully, I'll get one. So I'm interested to hear.Rachel:Yeah. I mean, the positive and the negative. The positive was that I had no time to worry about being pregnant. I was just like, "Oh, yeah, this is just happening and I'm going to keep moving." And I think a lot of people in that moment of life and in that phase kind of stew in the moment. And it was great. Nine months later or 10 months later, a baby popped out and I was like, "Moving on." And the negative is it's funny exactly as you just phrased it. The question that came up not actually as frequently as I thought it might, but once or twice, I definitely got the question, how do you plan to be a good mother and run a business? And I'm like, "Interesting question that I'm not going to justify with an answer. But if what you're trying to ask is if I'm 100% committed to making Daily Harvest successful, the answer is yes."Stephanie:Yep. That's great. That's a good way to do it like, "I'm not even going to answer that."Rachel:What a ridiculous question?Stephanie:Yeah. I always say like I could never imagine someone asking like, "Oh, man, how do you plan on still working if your kids are on the way?" I can do that.Rachel:Totally.Stephanie:So I saw you have some really impressive names as investors like Serena Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow. Tell me a little bit about how you got these investors on board.Rachel:Yes. So each one is kind of its own story, but Serena is my favorite because I got a random email from Alexis Ohanian who's now her husband, at the time was Serena's boyfriend. And he was like, "My girlfriend and I eat Daily Harvest every day. We would love to talk to you." I had no idea who his girlfriend was. And the next thing I knew, I was on the phone with Serena Williams like, "Wait, what?"Stephanie:Oh my gosh. That is actually insane. I mean, I wouldn't have known that either because I don't really know names and stuff like that. So how did the conversation go?Rachel:I had no idea. I mean, it was amazing. She's so cool and was incredibly down to earth. And she was just saying how Daily Harvest really helped her eat the way that she wanted to eat, the way that she needed to eat in a pinch. And she loved the idea. And this was super early on. And I was like, "First of all, how do you even know about us? But amazing." And she asked if she could invest. And I was like, "Let me think about this for a second. Yes, absolutely."Stephanie:Oh, that's great. Stephanie:So after you landed Serena, did other investors come along when you could kind of point to like, "I've got Serena Williams. You win her out." How did the other ones go?Rachel:I mean, it's funny. We weren't really public with it until much later. So we had other investors reach out to us with interest, but it had nothing to do with Serena. It really was people finding us in pretty organic ways. And people just getting excited about the idea and the concept and seeing the problem that I stated earlier in their own life and seeing that we don't have to compromise, we can have it all, at least with our food. So each story, as I said, is pretty unique. But they really all were people who found us, which was pretty remarkable.Stephanie:Yeah, that's great. I mean, that's a testament to the product. Very, very cool. So when thinking about new customers finding you in organic or non-organic ways, how are you getting in front of people right now? And I'm asking this question because I went on your guys's Pinterest, and I saw you have like 4 million views a month. And I was like, "What? How are they getting 4 million views on Pinterest?" So I want to hear a little bit about your customer acquisition and how you're getting in front of people.Rachel:Yes. So we have a really robust marketing mix. My background is marketing. So we always started with the goal of, how are we not beholden to any one channel? Right? Because I think that that's just asking for trouble. And we built it in a really nimble and agile way so that as trends and algorithms and all sorts of things change, that we can then be nimble as a result. And we're lucky that we have a really high amount of our customers come in through word of mouth. But we've also done a lot of things to make that easier, to remove the friction of people sharing when they have a positive Daily Harvest experience.Rachel:But there are other things that I think have made us stand out on... I mean, literally, you name a marketing channel, we are on it. There's nothing that's like secret saucy there. But I really think it comes down to our differentiated messaging and our differentiated photography and really focusing on connecting with universal human truths where people are just like, "Oh, you get me. Yep, I understand. I'm going to learn more."Stephanie:Oh, that's great. So tell me a little bit about that differentiated messaging that you're talking about? How do you go about figuring out what you want to message and how do you know what will connect and what won't? Because what you might think is going to be a universal truth, I might be like, "Oh, that's not my truth." How do you guys go about making sure you're speaking to your customer?Rachel:Absolutely. It definitely is trial and error to understand what works, but we obviously have a mission. So we're looking for customers with whom our mission resonates. And there's just a lot of different ways where when you remove your marketing hat and you're like, "How would a normal human say this?" Or, "What is the way of saying something that gets somebody to stop their scroll or perk their ears while listening to something that they might otherwise fast forward past?" And then it's the same thing on the visual side, really focusing on photography and imagery that's visually arresting and beautiful. And also stuff that looks delicious. You can't underestimate the salivation factor of... I don't know if that's a real thing.Stephanie:I like that. Now it needs to be.Rachel:It totally does. How much of a photograph actually makes you salivate? Because that's tied to how hungry it makes you and how much it makes you want something.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, pictures are everything. Even on your packaging and things like that, I mean, that's what makes me want to buy something, even when I'm on DoorDash or something, if an item doesn't have a picture on it, I'm like, "No, I'm not so sure if I want it," even if it sounds amazing. I want to see what it actually looks like. So it seems like you have very, very smart to have pictures on everything, especially Pinterest.Rachel:Yep. And because people have such short attention spans these days, and because there's so much media being thrown at you constantly, we also really focus on simplicity with it. So not only is it beautiful and drool-worthy, but it's also simplistic.Stephanie:That's great. So earlier, you mentioned also removing friction of having customers share their stories. How did you go about ensuring that a new customer or existing customer would share their stories and keep doing them?Rachel:Yeah. So what we have found is it's not so much about giving the customers places to share their thoughts and feelings. It's more about showing that you respond to them. So one of the things that we did really early on is we built a quite agile supply chain. And the goal of that was really to be able to respond to customer needs. We wanted to create a customer driven company. We had to be able to respond to customer needs. And it's one thing to have these amazing insights and to be innovative. And a lot of companies have the ability to do that. But if you can't respond in a timely manner, does it really matter? I'm not so sure.Rachel:So by showing customers, not just telling them, that we are actually listening to them and creating the food that they want to eat with them, and then connecting people with the food that was created for them, it sounds pretty simplistic. But there are really few companies that actually do it. So we're able to bring something to market in six to eight weeks from the time our customers tell us what they want. And I think that that is why customers love to share with us. And that is why we continue to be able to build these connections with our customers, those relationships.Stephanie:That's such a good point actually to show someone like you're not just submitting something into a black box and nothing's ever happening. What does the process look like? Where are they submitting their feedback? And then how do you interact with them in a way that is one on one, but then also shows your entire customer or new customer base, "Here's what we did for this one customer?" What does that process look like from start to finish?Rachel:Yeah. I mean, literally any channel that you can think of, we've built a way to interact. So whether it is through our app, whether it is through text message, whether it is through social media, you name it, we've made the conversation two ways. And what's interesting about it is if you think back to the story I told you earlier where kind of faking it till you make it, I'm air quoting, which you obviously can't see, but you're faking it but kind of faking it.Rachel:In the early days, our way of talking to our customers was every single team member at Daily Harvest would follow the Daily Harvest hashtag and every single day, it was the expectation that they would scroll through. And when somebody wrote something about Daily Harvest, the team engaged. Every single person on the team was asked to engage. So everyone from an engineer who might not under normal circumstances have any interaction with a customer directly to somebody on our culinary team. And it depends on what the customer put out there. But if it was something like your app is X, Y, Z, then an engineer would jump in and say, "Hey, can you tell me more about that?" And really just empowering the team to forge those relationships and to have those conversations I think is really what started it from a team culture perspective.Rachel:And then as we've grown, we've built tools in this way that allow it to happen. [inaudible 00:20:08], obviously, not everybody is scrolling through every single Daily Harvest hashtag these days, but we've empowered everybody to really think about how we maintain our vision of being truly customer driven.Stephanie:I love that. I mean, that's such a good experience. It's so different than, of course, corporate culture where you're probably told you are not allowed to engage with someone who tweets at us, and it has to be approved by PR. And there's so many rules and stuff. A lot of us had been taught in the past like, "Just don't say anything." And I can imagine how great of a culture you build by saying, "Everyone get on there. Respond to these people. It's on you to actually keep our customers happy." That seems like a transformative environment.Rachel:Absolutely. And then you have it scaled too. People really are thinking customer first at all times.Stephanie:Yeah, that's really cool. So when it comes to product request, I mean, it seems like there'd be an area that could be like a leaderboard where people can vote on the next products they want and actually determine that. Is there anything like that that you have going on to kind of create more social engagement and also people having an input in the product that maybe they wouldn't have just tweeted at you and said like, I want to have more figs?" They might not have that idea on their own, but they would like to maybe vote on it?Rachel:Totally. Yeah. I mean, we have all sorts of engagement opportunities for customers. But the important thing to know is that none of our skews or collections at Daily Harvest are created to be generally accepted. So we really focus on what people want from the perspective of their taste affinities, which is really differentiated.Rachel:So if you think about traditional product cycles and product development tools, people will look at things like demographics, psychographics, household income, credit card swipe data, and all of these things that when you kind of zoom out really never made sense to me because I can tell you, my husband and I live in the same house. We have the same household income. We share credit cards. We have the same credit card swipe data, same education, we met in school. But when it comes down to it, he orders from a very different restaurant than where I order from at night when we order in. So we really try to focus on what taste preferences are. And we try to create food for specific groups of people that have similar taste preferences, so nothing that we create is meant for general consumption. And that's where it gets really nuanced and really differentiated.Rachel:So yes, we will say to people, "We're thinking about creating X, Y, Z, and we would love your input." We take that into consideration, but we also take into consideration that, "Who is actually answering that question and where they're coming from and what their taste preferences are." Because I might like something that is, let's say, filled with greens, and you might like something that has no garlic in it or whatever it is because you might be allergic to garlic. And we're not going to like the same thing. So why should we try to make food for both of us?Stephanie:I love that idea of making sure that you actually focus on your customers because I think it's very easy, especially with all these new B2C companies that are launching right now to get distracted and not remember like, "Who did you actually build this for? What is your customer base? And what are you trying to do in this world?" Instead of being like, "Oh, and this person wants more sugar added to the matcha. Okay, I didn't really want to add a bunch of sugar to it, but this person wants it." It's a good reminder to not get distracted.Rachel:Right. But if we do have a group of customers that tell us that they want that same matcha that's a bit sweeter, we can accommodate that. It's just we would never target the same food to... We would know who we're targeting what to.Stephanie:Yep, very cool. So I'm very interested in the partnerships that you have with farmers and what your supply chain looks like behind the scenes that you can make these really quick product pivots or new products coming out in like six-day weeks. So can you speak a little about, what did that look like forming those partnerships? And any hiccups that you experienced in the early days of trying to get that worked out?Rachel:Yeah. I mean, as I said, it started with Trader Joe's because every time we reached out to a farm, they were like, "Who are you? Can you guarantee this entire crop?" And I was like, "I don't know."Stephanie:They were asking you to guarantee whole crops for them?Rachel:I mean, sometimes you have to if you want to be in control of how sweet it is, what the nutrition level is, you really have to be. And that was the vision because the way that I always envisioned taking care of food was really at the systemic level. So really to make change, you have to go to that level of scale in your purchasing. And we're incredibly meticulous about the ingredients that we use and how we source them. We actually have an entire team that's dedicated to finding the best farms. And we have over 400 farms that we work with directly. So we set incredibly rigorous standards that ensure not only are our partners using regenerative practices in their farming, things like increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, using organic farming practices, strengthening the health and vitality of our farm soil, using fair labor practices.Rachel:But we also are really particular about when we harvest our food. We want to make sure that the fig or the blueberry that you're eating is unparalleled not only from a nutrition perspective, but also from a taste perspective. So that means that we have to let every single ingredient reach its full nutritional and flavor potential on the vine or on the tree. And then we freeze everything within 24 hours of it being picked, which is really differentiated. And because of that rigor, our food is actually more nutritious than the stuff that you buy in the grocery store, which is something that a lot of people are surprised to hear. I think a lot of people see frozen as not as nutritious or inferior, when in fact, unless you are picking something straight from the farm and consuming it within three days, that's just not the case.Rachel:And we work with these farmers to also create entirely new supply chains, which is amazing. Our customers told us that they really wanted something with celery root last fall. And we worked with the farmer to create an entire supply chain of frozen celery root that had never existed before. And what's cool about a frozen supply chain is there's actually 50% less food waste and there's just so many benefits to the system overall. But we really think a lot about how we create the most nourishing, best tasting food and it really all comes back to those farm relationships.Stephanie:Wow, that's really cool. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people like you said don't understand the frozen aspect of why it's better because I know a while back, I heard that about fish too. But it's better to have frozen fish that's frozen right away when it's caught than getting something fresh. Fresh feels like it's healthier but actually it's more nutritional if you get the frozen one that was frozen right on the ship or boat or whatever it is.Rachel:When you think about the frozen aisle in the grocery store, most people associate it with like dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.Stephanie:Yes, which may or may not be in my freezer right now.Rachel:I don't judge. When you ask most people what's in their freezer, it's like ice cream and vodka and ice cubes. I'm like, "These are not bad things, but it just shows you how the food system has evolved." And the microwave dinner was created not because it was healthy. It was because it was convenient and it was because it was created during this Industrial Revolution when food and science melded together in ways that is just so unnatural and we kind of just stayed there. So I think there's been a lot of... not I think. There's been a lot of education for customers to help them understand the benefits of frozen not only for themselves, not only for their taste buds, but also for the food system as a whole.Stephanie:Got it, that's great. So the one thing I'm thinking about too is working with farms, I can see them being on older tech stacks I'll call them or no tech stacks.Rachel:What tech stacks?Stephanie:Yeah. I'll just say non-existent tech stacks maybe unless they're like the very advanced farm with the drones going on.Rachel:No, [crosstalk 00:29:55].Stephanie:You're working with 400 farms. How are you placing these orders and getting things to happen quickly and making sure that it's up to your standards and that nothing's going to get backed up? How do you do that with farms that don't have a tech stack?Rachel:I mean, we built the technology for it.Stephanie:Tell me a bit about that. What did that process look like?Rachel:Yeah. So in the beginning, we only had a few farms, and it was easier to manage. But obviously, once you hit a certain scale, it becomes a little unwieldy and it's not just 400 farms. There's four crops a year and different ingredients. One farm might have six ingredients that they're growing for us. So it can get really complicated. But as I said, we have a large team that really focuses on this, and they're incredibly passionate. So what we did is we thought about how technology could make their job easier, how we can leverage technology to remove some of the friction in managing the quality of our food and the supply chain in general. And we really built a verification system that... I would say a trust but verify system where we set certain quality standards. Because we can't [inaudible] people who are on site at every farm with every harvest, and then there's like a verification system where they're sending us samples constantly to make sure that that everything is as we say it needs to be. And we're verifying nutrition after something is frozen to make sure that it's as it's supposed to be. And through every step, we are trusting and verifying. And all of that is rigorously notated in our technology stack.Stephanie:That's really cool. So it seems like you're bringing a lot of farmers online. Have they asked to reuse the technology with other partners too? They could be a whole separate business like, "Here's technology that you can now have with anyone else ordering from you."Rachel:Totally. I mean, we work with a lot of small farmers. So a lot of farmers don't have a lot of other business. We've really grown to a scale where most of our farmers are Daily Harvest farmers.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). Oh, cool.Rachel:Really cool when you think about it. But yeah. I mean, we've definitely had people ask, but we've got to focus on our core competencies and what we're trying to achieve.Stephanie:Yep. That's great. So everyone's obviously looking into subscription businesses right now. It's always top of mind like, "Should this business be a subscription or not?" Everyone wants one. How do you think about retaining your customers and enticing them to stay with you for the long haul?Rachel:Yeah. So one thing that's interesting about Daily Harvest is on the outside, we kind of look like a subscription, but we're actually not a subscription. We're really what we call a replenishment business because once you sign up for Daily Harvest, our goal is to make sure that your freezer is always stocked. And it's not because that's good for us, it's because that's how we make sure that you have the food that you want when you want it. At that moment when you're hangry, when you're reaching for that bar, you need to have the right food in your freezer. Otherwise, you're going to make a different choice, right?Rachel:So we think a lot about what that replenishment looks like. And we also never want you to get an order of Daily Harvest that you don't want. Right? So we actually communicate with our customers ad nauseum to make sure that we're never sending them anything that they don't want, and they're only getting food when they do want it. And that's what makes us different from a subscription business where you have to consume your food or use your razor or whatever it is within a specific period of time and it's only good for that period of time. Because we're frozen, we're really not perishable, which is a huge benefit and allows us to be even more customer centric, but really thinking about maintaining our customer base.Rachel:Removing friction for our customers and making things as easy as possible for them, making their account as easy as possible to manage making sure that they're getting the food that they want when they want it. And we found that there's a direct correlation between removing that friction, being customer driven. We don't even think about about retention. We think about how can we be more customer driven? How can we get our customers exactly what they want? And what we found is that those things correlate really nicely.Stephanie:Yeah, I completely agree. So what does that back end account management look like for your customers? And one thing that's coming to mind is like the past couple interviews I've done, we've touched on one click ordering and how that's a big thing that a lot of people are expecting now. And I could see that maybe coming into play for you guys too where you're more about replenishing items. If I'm out of my matcha, or smoothie, or whatever it was that I really just enjoyed, going on to my account and just ordering that, and not having to have minimums or anything. Just being like, "That's what I want," and just doing it one off. How do you guys have the back end working?Rachel:Yeah. So we don't do that. And the reason why is because we really think of ourselves, as I said, as replenishment. So our customer behavior is much more going to shop at Costco, let's say. You don't go to Costco to buy one thing. It's never worth a shot.Stephanie:I need 10 pounds of butter when I go there.Rachel:Totally. But you have certain things that you go and you buy a lot of. So our customer really thinks about, how can Daily Harvest fill my entire freezer? When your inventory at home starts to dwindle, that's when you make your next purchase. So for us, one click ordering is not a thing. And we find that actually there's tension between how much cognitive load you reduce and how much customer friction you reduce, and people really getting the food that they want. So there's definitely a balance there. But what we do instead is we have an app and our app is incredibly customer driven. And it's about communication with our customers and making sure that, as I said, they're getting the food that they want when they want it. But it's definitely as easy as humanly possible, but not so easy that you're going to get something that you don't want.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's great. Yeah. And I think that's a really good reminder, too, that everyone might be obsessed with a subscription model because that is good for businesses to lock people in. But that might actually leave a bad taste in a customer's mouth. And your model is completely different, which is like focus on what they want and what they need and make it easy for them to order and refill quickly without having to come back a thousand times.Rachel:Yep. And make it as easy as possible honestly for them to pause and cancel and do all the things they want to do because when you do that, they come back.Stephanie:Yep. I love that. Low friction, it's worth it. So to go to little more general commerce questions, what kind of disruptions do you see coming to commerce right now maybe in the next couple years?Rachel:I mean, look, I think COVID has been... it's been an interesting few months. But what it has done is it's really accelerated a bunch of trends that we've seen. And we've seen this huge adoption of ecommerce and people's willingness to stick around once they've tried it. So as you had early adopters previously who were signing up for food delivery or whatever it may be delivered to their home, what we're seeing now is people who are not early adopters, so more of the mainstream signing up. And there are different needs, and there's a different level of education, and there's all sorts of nuance to take into account with that trend. So we're thinking a lot about that, how we continue to remove friction for this different type of customer.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's really great. So we have a couple minutes left and I want to jump over to the lightning round brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I'm going to ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Are you ready, Rachel?Rachel:No.Stephanie:Prepare yourself to get some deep breaths. Get in the game. All right. We'll start with the easier ones first. What's Up next on your Netflix queue?Rachel:Oh, wait. I can't remember what it was called. It's The Man and the Company Castle. Hold on.Stephanie:Oh, that Amazon? The Man in the High Castle?Rachel:Yes. Not Netflix.Stephanie:That's okay. Yeah. Have you started it yet or?Rachel:I haven't but I am such a history nerd. And I don't know how I missed that this show existed, but I cannot tell you how excited I am to watch it.Stephanie:Yeah, it's very good.Rachel:Yeah. And I also feel like there's something about current state of affairs and dystopian society is that it really resonates. So let's see what it's got for us.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, I like that one a lot. I think it's a good reminder I'm always very biased and ask about Netflix but Amazon, they've got some good stuff. I mean, I've binge-watched I think it was like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel if you knew to balance yourself out of it from dystopian to fun and cute. Also a very good series that I loved.Rachel:That show is amazing.Stephanie:Oh, you like it too? Yeah. It always leaves me with the happy feeling like, "Oh, this is cute. I love this."Rachel:All the time that I remind them of Rachel Brosnahan, and I'm like, "That is a huge compliment. Thank you."Stephanie:That is. She's awesome. Good. What's up next on your reading list? And it can be business or personal.Rachel:So it's Never Split the Difference which I've actually read before, but I like to read it every few years because I think it's the best negotiator out there and I'm not a natural negotiator. But it's obviously a huge part of my job. So it's coming up on time to read it once more.Stephanie:That's great. What is one thing that comes to mind when you think about that book? One lesson or principle where you're like, "Yeah, I'm not going to split the difference?" Anything high level other than what I just said which is just jacking the title.Rachel:So my favorite takeaway from the book, and it's just a reminder, it's really about listening. It's funny. I think a lot about toddler psychology these days because I have a three-year-old and a five-year-old. And there's a lot in common with the tactics in this book and toddler psychology, but it's really about validating people's emotions and feelings and creating trust and safety to be able to negotiate better.Stephanie:Oh, that's good. I like that. It shows that so many things are similar in life. Dealing with toddlers is the same thing as negotiating for your salary or investment money. Same thing.Rachel:It really is. It's crazy.Stephanie:I have to check that one out. What app or a piece of tech are you using right now that's making you more efficient in your life?Rachel:Okay. So this is such a weird one, but my husband just introduced me to the app for my cable provider. And I had no idea that this existed. I never watched TV ever. But given that we're in day three of the sit and wait for the results of our election, I've been able to just pop it up and have the news on live stream behind me. And it's been incredible because previously, I was refreshing my Twitter feed every 20 minutes or whatever it was. But just kind of having it in live feed behind me has been a huge unlock for my efficiency in this crazy time.Stephanie:That's great. I haven't even thought about apps from cable providers. So it's a good reminder for everyone. I like that.Rachel:It never occurred to me that one would even exist, and I'm very happy with it.Stephanie:That's great. What's one thing that you wish you knew more about? It could be a topic, a trend, a theme, anything.Rachel:Let's see. I really wish I knew more about human psychology. I feel like every time I read something or learn more, I get really excited and I want to dive in more but I really never have time to. And it's something that I feel would make me better at what I do every day if I really understood the psychology behind it.Stephanie:That's a good one. Yeah, I completely agree about that. Something I always want to dive into more and haven't had the time yet. So Rachel, this has been such a fun interview. Where can people find out more about you and Daily Harvest?Rachel:At dailyharvest.com.Stephanie:Awesome. Thanks so much for coming on the show.Rachel:Thanks for having me.

In 1925 three children vanish without a trace in Arrowhead Lake. Nearly a century later there are those who still report seeing the children swimming beneath the surface like elusive dolphins.After losing her husband in a violent car crash, Rachel King and her two young sons venture to Arrowhead Lake to heal. When Rachel discovers that Great Woods Timber is planning to clear-cut this beautiful wilderness she enlists the help of Lilly Bowman and her mysterious father, chief and shaman of the Wabanaki nation.But dark events have been set in motion and Arrowhead Lake is under siege by a sinister force of mercenaries. When Chief Neptune vanishes, Rachel and Lilly call on Seth Ferguson, the local deputy sheriff for help. Together they discover an astonishing truth; a shadowy cabal that will stop at nothing to obtain the secret of Arrowhead Lake, a secret that if unearthed could have far-reaching consequences.When one of Rachel’s sons vanishes in the Lake, she and Lilly embark on a harrowing journey to find him. What they discover is a mind boggling truth that will change their lives forever.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Since 1929, MOAA mission has been to protect your earned military benefits. Through tireless advocacy, they have forged a legacy of success benefiting the entire military community. Become a member today, click here.MOAA Advisory CommitteeRachel serves on the MOAA Active Duty Advisory Committee. She applied for the position while living in Northern Virginia and loves that she represents not only the Coast Guard but military women. Her husband a male military spouse also has his voice heard through her representation. The goal of the advisory committee is to give a voice to military members to help keep MOAA aware of current issues service members and military spouses face. There is also a Military Spouse Advisory Committee.Storm the HillMOAA is active in Advocacy on Capitol Hill and one of the responsibilities of Committee members is being part of the annual storm the hill event. Storming the Hill means a number of MOAA members and spouses come to Capitol on a specific day to talk to Congress members about various legislations that are being worked. When Rachel stormed the hill in 2019, they were advocating for removing the Widow’s Tax, and through the advocacy of MOAA and others, the legislation was changed. She also was able to participate virtually, due to COVID, and had a chance to meet with a congresswoman who normally didn’t meet with MOAA members because the MOAA representative was often a white male. Through her advocacy, she was able to bring a diverse voice to the table and help represent more military members.But MOAA is more than AdvocacyNext, we discuss some of the benefits of being an MOAA member ranging from transition services, hiring symposiums, scholarships, no-interest loans, the Military Officer Magazine, and numerous virtual webinars. MOAA does so much on Capitol Hill, but that is only the beginning of the story of the work MOAA does. Why Join MOAAMOAA needs all Officers to join to ensure their voice is heard. You can become a free member though the BASIC membership where you will be informed through newsletters of the work being done, can be involved in chapter and council membership, and have exclusive discounts on products and travel. If you want to get more out of your membership look into the Premium and Life Membership options. Benefits include scholarships, interest-free loans and grants, advice on financial education, military pay, and benefits, career transition, and a monthly subscription to the Military Officer Magazine. Check out all levels of membership here.Mentioned in this EpisodeJoin MOAA Today!Widow Tax RepealTransition ServicesHealth CareExclusive DiscountsHiring SymposiumsMOAA Job BoardScholarshipsNo Interest Loans and GrantsMilitary Officer MagazineRelated Episodes:Advocacy with Military Officers Association of America (MOAA)

If you’re using podcast guest appearances as part of your visibility strategy, then you likely have thought about launching your own podcast. But where would you even start? My guest today is Rachel Nielson, the host of 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms, a podcast for moms who want to love motherhood as much as they love their children. When Rachel launched three years ago her first-month download figures were in the hundreds. Now, 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms podcast episodes have monthly downloads of 150,000+! So how did she get there?? We chat about the initial steps of podcast set-up, how she has grown her audience, how to work with sponsors, and the unique guest application process she’s put in place. Alongside Monica Packer from the About Progress podcast, Rachel is also the co-founder of Podcast University, an online school for busy moms who want to launch and grow impactful podcasts. Topics covered include: Why Rachel started her podcast and how she came up with its unique format The reasons why Rachel thinks that moms should invest in their dreams - also the cost of her initial podcast set-up Rachel’s approach to monetizing her podcast and successfully working with sponsors without giving up control The process by which Rachel accepts guests and pitches and how this has evolved as the show has grown Details of a FREE Podcast University online masterclass [affiliate link]  Resources mentioned in this episode: Get your free downloadable version of Angie's roadmap for podcast pitching success to be notified when the Go Pitch Yourself program reopens Book a discovery call to see if Angie can support YOUR visibility needs Follow Angie on Instagram - and submit your screenshots when you're ready to Go Pitch Yourself Get more info at Angie's website including details of the Go Pitch Yourself program  Subscribe to the 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms podcast Sign up for a FREE Podcast University online masterclass [affiliate link] Visit the Podcast University [affiliate link] Follow Rachel and the 3 in 30 Podcast on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook Now it’s time for you to get out there and Go Pitch Yourself! Be sure to screenshot this episode and tag me on Instagram @angie_trueblood and let me know that you are ready to #gopitchyourself! I’ll add your post to my story and help you spread the word!  Can’t wait to connect again! Feel like you need a little support in getting started pitching yourself? >>> Get a free downloadable version of my roadmap for podcast pitching success   Subscribe & Review in Apple Podcasts Are you subscribed to the podcast? If not, I’d love for you to do that today so you don’t miss ANY episodes. Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts! And, if you are SUPER pumped about the show, I would be so thankful if you would pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave a review. Crazy enough, reviews help other folks find my podcast and they help me get a real sense of what you love about the show. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Much love, friend. Special thanks to Steve Woodward at The Podcasting Editor for handling all the behind-the-scenes tech pieces of production.

When Rachel locked herself out of her closet this week, she unexpectedly learned an important life lesson. Instead of coming in hot with an answer, her handyman actually solved her problem by asking her questions. Rachel and Suzanne discovered that the “let's figure this out together” approach is actually way more effective than aiming for, “I've got your answer!” Also, Suzanne is a Diplo fan now? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1925 three children vanish without a trace in Arrowhead Lake. Nearly a century later there are those who still report seeing the children swimming beneath the surface like elusive dolphins.After losing her husband in a violent car crash, Rachel King and her two young sons venture to Arrowhead Lake to heal. When Rachel discovers that Great Woods Timber is planning to clear-cut this beautiful wilderness she enlists the help of Lilly Bowman and her mysterious father, chief and shaman of the Wabanaki nation.But dark events have been set in motion and Arrowhead Lake is under siege by a sinister force of mercenaries. When Chief Neptune vanishes, Rachel and Lilly call on Seth Ferguson, the local deputy sheriff for help. Together they discover an astonishing truth; a shadowy cabal that will stop at nothing to obtain the secret of Arrowhead Lake, a secret that if unearthed could have far-reaching consequences.When one of Rachel’s sons vanishes in the Lake, she and Lilly embark on a harrowing journey to find him. What they discover is a mind boggling truth that will change their lives forever Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/house-of-mystery-true-crime-history. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this first installment of See No Evil, the series where we discuss the TV and Movies that we were definitely NOT allowed to watch as kids, Chenoa and Taylor discuss 90s pop-culture phenomenon FRIENDS. For Your Information…. FRIENDS, as hilariously described by Google With or Without You, U2 The Rachel Theme Song, I'll Be There for You, The Rembrandts Shoutout to Kitchen 324 Favorite Moments Ross gets a spray tan (10:3), Monica & Rachel gamble away the apartment…. and get it back (4:12-4:19) Monica & Chandler keeping their relationship a secret (4:24-5:14) When Rachel makes the trifle for Thanksgiving (6:9) Any time Joey is Dr. Drake Ramore from Days of Our Lives Passed Notes Chenoa: Sonic Sparkling Water with flavors (strawberry or peach) Taylor: New skincare routine (CeraVe cleanser & lotion, Thayer's toner, and Pond's cold cream) Check out our website at https://www.shelteredthepodcast.com/ Engage with us on Instagram @shelteredthepodcast --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

On today’s episode, I am so excited to have Jennelle Gordon here. Jennelle and I have been going back and forth on Facebook for all this time and then she finally got on my calendar for my podcast.  Jennelle is an inspiration for women as a leader, speaker, and educator. She studied tantra and yoga extensively with masters in Thailand after leaving her traumatic past behind for a brighter future. We talk about healthy sexuality, the impacts of shame and fear, and even the importance of talking to our children at a young age.  In Today’s Episode: [02:36] It is such a great time for women to have a voice and for people really to get off their ass and do something.   [05:31] We don’t teach our young girls about healthy sex, sexual boundaries, and owning their body and power.   [07:25] Jennelle was a product of the foster system and experience physical and sexual abuse growing up.   [09:01] She has a book and Ted talks about being trafficked for over a decade. [10:51] As women we have to save ourselves.  We can’t wait for someone else to do it.    [12:11] She made it her mission to find a way to take her ten years’ experience of hell and merge it with what she had learned and come up with a modality that was healing for women. [13:46] What do I know I am supposed to teach? [15:55] When Rachel built her business she had no idea how she was going to do it, but she knew she was going to figure it out.   [17:41] There is so much repression around sexuality.   [18:48] Rachel and Jennelle both knew they couldn’t have a side hustle. They needed to make it work as their full-time work.   [20:11] People don’t want to talk about sex.  [21:51] The fear that we all live in is because we are so scared that somebody may just find that stuff isn’t completely together.     [24:28] Life feels hard so for whatever reason we think someone else’s life is easier.  We all make judgments.  Maybe we will come out of this not judging as much.   [26:51] Right now there are a lot of issues and they are all valid.    [28:42] We don’t want to acknowledge that human trafficking is happening in our own neighborhood. [33:22] People are addicted to social media likes because they think it is attached to their worth and value as a human.   [33:29] The number one fear that humans have is that we won’t be enough and that leads us to the number two fear we have, that we won’t be loved.    [39:14] Trafficking is in local communities all around.   [41:16] It is so ingrained in our lives that sex is bad and wrong.   [42:15] The beauty of each one of us in our own journey is to know that there is somebody that is similar to us and they are our ideal client. [44:14] We have this massive shame around sex and this fear of being judged so we clam up.  [47:12] It has become a mental health issue of people comparing themselves to other people and wanting to be them so bad instead of loving the body they are in. [48:28] Nothing is easy in this life.  Everything takes a regimen. [51:37] Life is about patterns.  We need to interrupt the patterns about how we are training our young men and women. [53:47] We need to talk to our children in an age-appropriate way with proper terminology about sex.   [57:53] The solution is to have conversations with your children and start super young.   [60:41] We need to stop judging and be more accepting of each other.   [61:28] We have to look out for other women and the more we come together the more powerful we will be and we can learn from each other.  Connect with Jennelle: Jennelle’s Website O Factors Website Beyond Freedom International Jennelle on Facebook Jennelle on Twitter Jennelle on LinkedIn Jennelle on YouTube Jennelle on Instagram Resources: Go to https://rachelafeldman.com/events for the new challenge. Go to https://rachelafeldman.com and read through my mini-courses. Make sure to go to my Facebook to get notified when I’m going live. Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at @RachelAFeldman and let me know what your favorite part of the episode was.

When Rachel was a preteen she went to the doctor after having lost her period and was shocked to hear she had an eating disorder. She has since then gone on a journey of ups and downs healing her relationship with food and her body to now being a successful intuitive eating and body image coach. Today on the podcast Rachel and I discuss how we became intuitive eaters in a value-packed conversation on: How we healed our relationship with food and our body Everything intuitive eating and movement Developing healthy coping mechanisms Breaking down emotional eating Importance of HAES Plus much more! If you enjoyed this episode with Rachel please be sure to rate and review! Take a screenshot of your review and send it to me on Instagram @victoriaevansofficial and I will gift you 10 phone wallpapers of inspirational quotes and intuitive eating tools previously reserved for my coaching clients! For more on Rachel Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelmmolenda/ Victoria Evans Intuitive Eating Coach To watch my Free Masterclass "3 Ways To Listen To Your Body To Leverage Success" https://www.victoriaevansofficial.com/leverageyourbodyforsuccess To apply for 1:1 Coaching: https://www.victoriaevansofficial.com/coaching To follow me on Instagram: @victoriaevansofficial https://www.instagram.com/victoriaevansofficial/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/victoriaevans/support

As the Covid 19 pandemic spread to each of our corners of the world earlier this year, many of us had to consider access to medical care (or lack of it) as we made decisions about staying or evacuating. When Rachel and her husband found out they were pregnant with their fourth child right as lockdowns began, they had to make the hard choice to leave their home in India and evacuate to America. In this episode, Rachel recounts her experience of leaving on short notice, while sick and pregnant, with three young children. She shares how she and her family have dealt with unmet expectations and loss upon their return to their passport country, and how their experience with cross-culture transitions has equipped them to be an encouragement and support to others in this challenging season. We also have show notes. Light reading for your pleasure. Connect with us: Instagram   or  Facebook Private Group Join us on our website with articles written by expats for expats: Connect with Alicia Connect with Denise Connect with Melissa QUESTIONS ASKED THIS EPISODE: “Everything began to change that first week of March. We found out we were pregnant, we started hearing all this information on lockdown and mask wearing, and the seriousness of it was escalating.” “We had about 12-18 hours to pack up our house, pack up our things, get everything arranged, and leave.” “It felt like it had already been a journey by the time we even got to the gate.” “As you can imagine, having three young children who are starving and tired and had just been through a lot of travel, it was crazy. “ “All of these expectations that my children had for coming back to the U.S. were stripped away from them. They couldn’t see family like they thought they would be able to, and all of these places that they looked forward to coming back to were not available.” “A lot of our homeschooling looked the same, and because of that I felt like it was just a comfort zone for them that gave them freedom to open up to us.” “Leaving our home in India was probably one of the hardest decisions my husband and I have ever had to make.” “One of the things I’ve had that’s been a challenge and I’ve had to grow and learn about in this season is how to give myself grace and how to allow myself to receive help when I’ve needed it.” “I can trust that whatever happens, we’ll be taken care of.” “How can we help each other in this time; how can we unite in this time to really support each other?” “Something I’ve continued to remind myself of in this season is that I’m not the only one going through this.” “Because of our life of transition, we can then come alongside those who aren’t as used to so much transition and just be a support for them, be a source of encouragement.” “I think an accurate way to describe much of what many people are going through is loss.” “So walking through that loss, one, is recognizing that it’s not just something I have to get through but it’s actually ok to mourn it.” “Our plans were taken away but we weren’t given new plans as a replacement.” “This time has allowed me to see the need for educating myself on others’ perspectives.” “I do not understand everyone’s circumstances and I have to learn to stretch myself to be able to love others well.” HELP THE TAKING ROUTE PODCAST REACH MORE EXPATS Subscribe | To subscribe on iOS, go to our iTunes page and subscribe to the Taking Route Podcast.  Leave a review | When you leave a five-star iTunes review, it helps other expats find us when they’re seeking out podcasts on iTunes. Need directions? Just check out the “Reviews” highlight on our Instagram account. Share with a friend | We hope to see the Taking Route podcast grow and grow and grow, but we rely on expats like you to spread the word. We appreciate when you share our episodes—whether that’s via Facebook, email, Twitter or Instagram. Thank you for the love! _________ Need a way to organize all your language learning notes? Check out our very first product "One Word at a Time: Language Learning Notebook."

Maybe you don’t know, but I was a coach too. I didn’t become a serial content creator without knowing exactly what you guys struggle with because I struggled with that too. I couldn’t find niche-specific content. I had to make my own. What I realized very early on is that I had to be extremely clear in what I did, how I went through my struggles, how I went from A to Z, and how I could take my pain and journey and turn that into a product, video series, blog or social media post, so that I could use the digital marketing space to become the international coach that I truly wanted to be.  In the last episode, we wrote down many of the struggles we had so we could begin to identify our story and start to learn how to put this into mini micro-stories and mini messages. In this episode, I am talking about the elements of storytelling and how to create your own brand messages.  In Today’s Episode: [01:28] What I realized very early on is that I had to be extremely clear in what I did, how I went through my struggles, how I went from A to Z, and how I could take my pain and journey and turn that into a product, video series, blog or social media post, so that I could use the digital marketing space to become the international coach that I truly wanted to be. [03:18] Many of us have very complex stories and that is why we feel like we have 10 niches.  It is really important to get clear on your story and on who you want to serve.    [05:38] People don’t buy products, they buy people.  [06:39] People have to know why you put your freebies and offers together, who’s it for, what are the problems you struggled with, the solutions you found and why it is essential for them to sign up for your freebies, webinar, challenge, group, or discovery call.   [07:53] Write down five people that you have helped who had similar issues. Write down the problems and solutions.    [09:01] When Rachel had no money to learn marketing, she followed people and learned from the best.   [09:23] Soap opera sequence is an essential part of storytelling.   [10:08] It is important for us to share these stories because it allows people to understand why we do it.     [11:27] Many times we get so stuck in the perfection that we don’t take time cultivating the why and who.  Be sure to include a call to action.    [12:54] The practice and messy perfection come when you start sharing your message.   [13:03] Story number two is giving them the behind the scenes and back story.   [15:10] Story three is your about me story.   [16:33] We are not a one-stop-shop.  If we were there wouldn’t be the levels of sickness we are seeing.   [17:24] Use introduction (micro-videos) for the things you want to say to people.  [18:47] What is your signature process? What has worked?  How did you do it? What is the story behind this? [20:48] We start to develop stories around our products because we know the pain and the pain turns into the product.   [21:03] If you are not converting then you are not clear on the pain, problem, desire, and promise.   [24:26] Rachel focused on attraction marketing.  She focused on letting people know how she handled all the problems in her life and with her family.   [25:44] She was very successful because she was really clear on the pain and what she wanted.  She was able to show results. [26:08] People have to hear from you what you went through to trust you.   [27:17] Rachel teaches how to build authority, keep it simple, and be smart with your time.  [28:31] Always do market research to find out what your people want from you so you can serve them better. Resources: Go to https://rachelafeldman.com/events for the new challenge. Go to https://rachelafeldman.com and read through my mini-courses. Make sure to go to my  Facebook to get notified when I’m going live. Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at @RachelAFeldman and let me know what your favorite part of the episode was.

Rachel grew up in Morrison, Colorado. She came across the world of healing after years of struggling with her personal health. Determined to heal, Rachel began studying holistic health and nutrition which opened a pathway of exploration. She followed a calling to Guatemala where she thought she was going to pursue herbalism, only to find she had a deep connection to the sacred Mayan calendar and the subtle medicine of cacao. Taken aback by the familiarity in what she was learning in Guatemala, it became clear that her healing path had led her to deepen her spirituality. When Rachel returned back to Colorado she was able to access another level of health and understanding that was unknown in the past. She has pursued working with the energies in the calendar system, ceremonial cacao, and together has created a devoted practice. Currently, Rachel lives in Wheat Ridge, Colorado with her husband, baby boy and dog Wrigley. She holds workshops throughout Colorado, focusing on the creation of sacred, safe space. Rachel leads cacao ceremonies, and a variety of workshops, all made up of radiant moments.   In This Episode We Talk About: How Rachel's health issues led her to Guatemala. Her realization of the power of the mind and body connection that changed her life.  The Mayan Cosmovision. Rachel gives me a short reading of my energies. The difference between the trecenas, the 20 day signs, and the numbers. How they work together to express the energetic frequency that is you.  How she personally uses the Mayan Cosmovision as a roadmap for her life.   For Full Show Notes Awaken + Align   Connect with Awaken and Align: If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it and tag me! Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it! Follow on Instagram @awakenandalign and let me know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

We are now in the shavuah shechal bo Tisha B’Av and it is incumbent upon us to try to feel some of the pain of the Shechina that is still in exile after so many years. Chazal tell us Hashem was forced, kavayachol , to destroy His own home because of our sins, primarily sinat chinam . And we are still preventing Him from building it. The Chafetz Chaim writes in his sefer Shmirat Halashon in the name of Rishonim , if baseless hatred caused the destruction of the built Beit HaMikdash , surely it will not be rebuilt so long as the hatred continues. The sefer Aleh Ayin writes, when Yaakov Avinu wanted to reveal to his children the date of the Final Geula , he told them האספו, which means you must gather together and be united in order for it to take place. There are people who don’t talk to each other because of monetary disputes or because one insulted the other. The Peleh Yoetz writes, whatever the reason for the hatred, it is still called baseless because Hashem is really the one who brings about everything. If we got insulted or lost money, it’s because it was the will of Hashem for us. And it is Hashem’s will that we don’t hate anyone, even in our hearts. There are family members who don’t speak to each other, lo alenu . Even children who refuse to talk to their parents, Rachmana letzlan . The Final Redemption is in our hands. No one should ever say, what is my forgiving going to help, there are still thousands of people who hate? First of all , we don’t know the value of each person’s deeds and secondly, we are not obligated to do the entire job ourselves, but have to do at least our part. If the only incentive in forgiving people and uprooting the hatred would be that we are doing the will of Hashem and enabling Him to bring the Geula , it would be more than enough. But there’s more. Hashem loves when we make peace so much, He also gives it side rewards in this world as well. Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein told a story about a woman whose name is Rachel who had a good job working in a certain children’s center. One day, her friend Rivka was pleading with her to get her a job in the same center. She acquiesced and Rivka got hired. A few months later, Rachel was doing construction on her home which was close to where she worked, and so, from time to time, she would leave work for a few minutes to make sure the construction was being done properly. On one occasion, the manager of the center came to speak to Rachel while she was on one of those quick visits. The manager asked Rivka, “Where is Rachel?” Rivka told her the truth. The manager became furious and, when Rachel came back, she fired her saying, “You can’t just leave work whenever you want.” When Rachel found out that Rivka told her where she was, she became livid. She yelled at her saying, “This is the thank you I get for getting you this job? Couldn’t you just have said that I stepped out for a minute?” From that day on, Rachel stopped talking to Rivka. She couldn’t forgive her, especially since she got fired at a time that she needed the money so much to pay for her construction. Some time later, Rachel was on a bus traveling from Bnei Brak to Elad with a friend, and Rivka was on that same bus. Rivka went over to her to say hello, but Rachel completely ignored her. Rachel’s friend asked her who that person was and why she ignored her. Rachel then told her the story. The friend said, “Please, do me a favor. I have a sister who’s married for sixteen years without children. I’ve heard so many stories about the power of blessing that a person receives when she forgives. Please forgive Rivka now and then ask Hashem to give my sister a child. Rachel said, “I’m sorry, I can’t forgive her. I can’t even look at her.” But as the bus ride progressed, Rachel began to think about it more. She herself had a 27 year old son who was having an extremely hard time in shidduchim . She told her friend, “I’m going to go right now and forgive her and then, b’ezrat Hashem, I’ll pray that your sister has a child and that my son gets married. Rachel went over to Rivka, and they made up right there on the spot. Rabbi Zilberstein paused the story and said he has heard many stories like this, but each one of them is so special because it shows how much Hashem loves when His children forgive each other and make up. Baruch Hashem, this time as well, the yeshuot were not delayed in coming, Rachel’s son got engaged within the next few months, and her friend’s sister made a Brit Milah for a healthy baby boy on the 3 rd day of Cheshvan, which was within a year of her forgiving, less than 2 years ago from today. Let us end the fighting. Do it because it is the will of Hashem and then, b’ezrat Hashem we’ll be able to enjoy the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash . Amen .

We MADE IT FAM! At the beginning of the Quarantine doldrums we set out to offer up some bonus content for every week of this season of Anime for the homies to maybe help everyone keep their minds off the doom and gloom out there. I think it was successful! Two super solid shows and 13 bonus episodes of content for y'all! Hope you enjoyed and let us know what you thought of the segment on any of the socials or email, thanks for sticking with us $quad and we hope you are all safe out there! -EthanGleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Hit up the Twitter!https://twitter.com/WeebologyPCheck out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Have you ever envisioned something that then came true?    Everything I achieved so far, I have envisioned first. I truly believe in the method of envisioning where I want to be to then be able to get there.    Rachel Luna, my guest on the Sigrun Show this week, has specialised in designing her future by envisioning it first, and she does so through journaling.    Rachel had to go through tremendous struggles to get to where she is today. Both of her parents died of AIDS, she battled eating disorders when she was in her teens and in 2006, she was overweight, $40k in debt, and had just found out that her boyfriend of three years was happily married to another woman.    The rug was pulled out from under her feet and she hit rock bottom. But not for the first time in her life, she had an awakening moment and knew she couldn't go on like this. She hired a life coach who told her that with her story, she could help other people and become a life coach herself.    Her faith had always been a pillar for Rachel, but she knew it wasn't enough. She needed to take action and discovered journaling. Within 18 months of writing and drawing how she wanted her life to be like, she met and married her husband, had her first daughter and was financially secure.    In this episode, Rachel shares her personal story, the process she uses to manifest her goals and dreams in her journals, and what she does when things don't work out.    If you're in need of some true inspiration, this episode is right down your alley.    “Life is uncertain from the day we are born and if we accept that truth, everything that we are going through has a different lens.”- Rachel Luna   22:48-23:23   What you will get out of this episode:    When Rachel hit rock bottom (10:40)  How one therapist made Rachel understand that she was in control (21:20) Rachel's two journals (25:00) The 3 step process to envision your goals in a journal (30:00) Rachel's journaling routine and what she does when things don't work out (36:20) Adding physical movement to your journaling (39:00) What you can do besides journaling to not get stuck with negative thoughts (42:00) [Recording with image]   [Link to transcript]   [Link to Apple podcast / stitcher / Google Play]   Ready to go after your big goals? Check out how to set and achieve big, hairy audacious goals or how to stop using excuses and achieve anything in life.  The 3 Step Process to Envision Your Goals Through Journaling   There's a difference between keeping a diary to emote your feelings and journaling to manifest your goals. Rachel Luna's advice is to keep moving forward as if what you've asked for has already been granted, and this is how she writes and draws in her journal.  She has successfully tested her method on hundreds of her students and here, reveals the three steps on how to use your journal to eventually design your future.    Write   Get a journal and start writing. Write anything, even if you think journaling is a waste of time, you don't know where to begin, or you think you're too busy. The key is to allow journaling to have its moment, give it attention and keep at it.    Shift   Shift from writing your thoughts to adding gratitude into your practice. You have to be grateful for what you have right now if you want to have anything more than what you've already got.    It's ok to want more, but you still have to acknowledge that you have more than most. Begin this step by making a shift statement:  a) I'm so grateful and excited now that …  b) Even though all of this has happened, I'm so grateful because now, …   This helps your subconscious brain get into agreement with the fact that you recognise that some of what you're about to write isn't your reality yet, but you're excited and hopeful.    Script   Script your vision and goals as if they already happened. Why? Because when you start writing like this, your ego doesn't want to be proven wrong. The subconscious is always looking for evidence to bring to life the things that you desire. Once you write it down, it will prompt you into action. Are you going to start journaling yourself? Let me know if this episode inspired you to go after your goals. You can follow and connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  Join me on Telegram   Do you want to stay up to date? If you subscribe to my Telegram channel, you'll immediately see when I release a new podcast episode, go live on YouTube or announce any events I'm planning, plus I share interesting polls and insights into my life as a multiple seven-figure entrepreneur.    Click here to sign up.  Connect with Rachel Luna:   Grab the first chapter of Rachel's book on girlconfident.com rachelluna.biz Rachel Luna on Instagram Listen to Rachel's podcast Real Talk Please share, subscribe and review Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Sigrun Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music so more people can enjoy the show. Click here to learn how to leave a review, then head over to Apple Podcasts for your chance to win a special thank you gift!

Welcome back Weebs! We promised y'all some extra content, extra credit if you will, and we have delivered! We are definitely liking this style, which coincidentally does comply with social distancing in this tough time. We will continue to bring you a new normal length show every Monday and now EXTRA CREDIT episodes every Thursday as well, at least while the world is shut down.Gleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Hit up the Twitter!https://twitter.com/WeebologyPCheck out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Welcome back Weebs! We promised y'all some extra content, extra credit if you will, and we have delivered! We are definitely liking this style, which coincidentally does comply with social distancing in this tough time. We will continue to bring you a new normal length show every Monday and now EXTRA CREDIT episodes every Thursday as well, at least while the world is shut down.Gleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Hit up the Twitter!https://twitter.com/WeebologyPCheck out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Welcome back Weebs! We promised y'all some extra content, extra credit if you will, and we have delivered! We are definitely liking this style, which coincidentally does comply with social distancing in this tough time. We will continue to bring you a new normal length show every Monday and now EXTRA CREDIT episodes every Thursday as well, at least while the world is shut down.Gleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Hit up the Twitter!https://twitter.com/WeebologyPCheck out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Thank you all so much for a year of listening to us talk about Anime! Its been such a blast to meet y'all and connect with so many dope people! We really appreciate you!- Weebology ProfessorsWelcome back Weebs! We promised y'all some extra content, extra credit if you will, and we have delivered! We are definitely liking this style, which coincidentally does comply with social distancing in this tough time. We will continue to bring you a new normal length show every Monday and now EXTRA CREDIT episodes every Thursday as well, at least while the world is shut down.Gleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Hit up the Twitter!https://twitter.com/WeebologyPCheck out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Happy Memorial Day week homies. Thank you to all those who lost their lives in the Armed Forces protecting our country! Without all of you there would be no Weebology Podcast so we appreciate it y'all!Welcome back Weebs! We promised y'all some extra content, extra credit if you will, and we have delivered! We are definitely liking this style, which coincidentally does comply with social distancing in this tough time. We will continue to bring you a new normal length show every Monday and now EXTRA CREDIT episodes every Thursday as well, at least while the world is shut down.Gleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Check out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Homies, we are both completely exhausted in this episode but some good info on the series we are chatting about. For a sneak peek teaser though our next two full Monday episodes are ABSOLUTE PLATINUM! So definitely stay tuned for those. Stay Safe, Wear a Mask, and Wash your hands fam! - your Weebology ProfessorsWelcome back Weebs! We promised y'all some extra content, extra credit if you will, and we have delivered! We are definitely liking this style, which coincidentally does comply with social distancing in this tough time. We will continue to bring you a new normal length show every Monday and now EXTRA CREDIT episodes every Thursday as well, at least while the world is shut down.Gleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Check out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Weebs we have an exxxtrraaaa thicccc extra credit episode for y'all today, We hope you'll like it!Welcome back Weebs! We promised y'all some extra content, extra credit if you will, and we have delivered! We are definitely liking this style, which coincidentally does comply with social distancing in this tough time. We will continue to bring you a new normal length show every Monday and now EXTRA CREDIT episodes every Thursday as well, at least while the world is shut down.Gleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Check out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Quick PSA, I was essentially braindead during recording. Hopefully my ravings of a mad scientist made some semblance of sense haha sorry! -Prof EthanWelcome back Weebs! We promised y'all some extra content, extra credit if you will, and we have delivered! We are definitely liking this style, which coincidentally does comply with social distancing in this tough time. We will continue to bring you a new normal length show every Monday and now EXTRA CREDIT episodes every Thursday as well, at least while the world is shut down.Gleipnir is a new Anime running in the Spring 2020 season. The shows animator is Pine Jam, which is relatively unknown. Their most well known product is the OVA Hozuki's Coolheadedness. This show is WILD bros. I sorta thought the OP sucked and was borderline annoying, with a weird high pitched screech. The show's genre is Mystery, Ecchi, Action, Supernatural, and a Seinin. The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant mascot costume complete with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing fellow classmate, Kurea "Claire" Aoki, from a warehouse fire, she sadistically decides to use him to hunt down other monsters in search of her sister. - WikipediaTower of God centers around a boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent most of his life trapped beneath a vast and mysterious Tower, with only his close friend, Rachel, to keep him company. When Rachel enters the Tower, Bam manages to open the door into it as well, and faces challenges at each floor of this tower as he tries to find his closest companion. As the story progresses, the reader gradually explores the lore, history, and motivations of important characters and factions that drive or try to change the fate of the tower, for more than 10,000 years. Mysteries are gradually unveiled and added, as the readers learn about the struggles and triumphs of the inhabitants of the tower. - WikipediaPlease make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, reviews really help all your favorite shows grow!SocialsFollow us on instagram for mid week updates and awesome Anime Memes!https://www.instagram.com/weebology.podcast/Check out our Youtube Channel for additional anime content or video podcasts episodes!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJBllbgYsuTrrG5IssngOgContact us with any questions, comments, or requests for anime to hear us wax philosophic about! weebologypodcast@gmail.comIntro / Outro Song Our theme song is:Dreams By Dj Quads https://youtu.be/iiRCmcP_jlcArtist SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsMusic Promoted by https://goo.gl/5NfMV4Please check out his music and support this awesome artist!

Chances are you’ve heard of a fun little app called TikTok. And if you haven’t, then you might be wondering why everyone and their grandmother (Yes, even grandmothers) are suddenly doing crazy dance challenges and uploading them to social media. Well thanks to the likes of people like Gary V. and our guest Rachel Pederson, TikTok has started to make a name for itself in the entrepreneurial space. When Rachel first started TikTok, she only had 60 followers, but her first video got over 9,000 views in one night. Get this, she even took a yearlong break from the app and still gained thousands of followers. Now, with over 120K followers - Rachel receives well over 2 Million views a week. Ok, so you’re thinking that’s cool… …but I’m guessing the question that is on your mind is - How does this make me money? Well, that’s one of many questions Rachel answers in the interview. Since she has focused her attention on TikTok, Rachel has: - Increased sales by $60,000 in profit! - Cut back her Facebook ad cost by $30,000! - Gained 2,200+ YT subscribers in less than 2wks! What’s her secret? …well I will leave that up to Rachel to reveal that. Watch the episode and get some amazing insights. And If you want to learn more about Rachel go to TIKTOKGROWTHHACKS.COM

Chances are you’ve heard of a fun little app called TikTok. And if you haven’t, then you might be wondering why everyone and their grandmother (Yes, even grandmothers) are suddenly doing crazy dance challenges and uploading them to social media. Well thanks to the likes of people like Gary V. and our guest Rachel Pederson, TikTok has started to make a name for itself in the entrepreneurial space. When Rachel first started TikTok, she only had 60 followers, but her first video got over 9,000 views in one night. Get this, she even took a yearlong break from the app and still gained thousands of followers. Now, with over 120K followers - Rachel receives well over 2 Million views a week. Ok, so you’re thinking that’s cool… …but I’m guessing the question that is on your mind is - How does this make me money? Well, that’s one of many questions Rachel answers in the interview. Since she has focused her attention on TikTok, Rachel has: - Increased sales by $60,000 in profit! - Cut back her Facebook ad cost by $30,000! - Gained 2,200+ YT subscribers in less than 2wks! What’s her secret? …well I will leave that up to Rachel to reveal that. Watch the episode and get some amazing insights. And If you want to learn more about Rachel go to TIKTOKGROWTHHACKS.COM

If you are brand new in your journey of shopping ethically, or if you’ve been shopping ethically for a while, one of the most common frustrations I hear from people is that there’s not one central place to find all the things they need to buy. They don’t want to have to scour the internet and go to ten different websites to find all of their ethically made products. My guest today is trying to solve that exact problem. Rachel Kois is the founder and CEO of Simple Switch. Three years ago, Rachel was a business consultant for entrepreneurs in the poorest parts of South Africa. She was so impressed by what they created and learned so much from them. Rachel also understood the privilege she held, and when she came back from her trip, she knew she wanted to use her everyday choices to empower those with fewer resources. She found it was actually a very difficult thing to do. The hours it took to research company ethics, labor laws, and environmentally sustainable impact did not fit into her busy life and schedule. She wanted to make a positive impact, but she felt exhausted every step of the way. This gave Rachel the idea to start Simple Switch to help people like her, people like you, and people like me find easier ways to spend our money on products that help us vote for the kind of world we want to live in. The companies that Simple Switch has partnered with have committed to improving livelihoods, protecting the beautiful Earth that we live on, and empowering people to change their future; our future. Rachel firmly believes that even if one person uses Simple Switch, it would be worth the work of creating and sustaining the company. Simple Switch really is a one stop shop for finding ethically made, simple products that you use in your everyday life. I loved my chat with Rachel, and I know you’re going to be inspired by her too! 3:25 - The Rachel 101 Rachel is a young entrepreneur living between Denver and Boulder, Colorado. She grew up in Colorado with the mountains as her playground, and the outdoors are a big part of her life. She majored in both Business and Theatre Performance. Her theatre background has helped her take care of herself, express herself, and connect with people while starting Simple Switch. Rachel loves traveling and just finished visiting her 28th country! Her travels have been both personal trips, mission trips, and now, business trips to meet with Simple Switch partners. Rachel has had a heart for learning about other cultures from a young age. She learned a lot about both entrepreneurship and the world outside of the US from her parents who owned a real estate company and were friends with pastors in Nigeria. When Rachel graduated, she thought she wanted to go into counseling but choose business instead as a safeguard. She was surprised with how much she fell in love with business, specifically, business as an opportunity to do good in the world. She had a chance to intern in South Africa and do business consulting there. When she came home, she wanted to use her everyday choices to help support people like the clients she’d worked with in Africa. She recognized that they were incredible businesspeople but didn’t have the same access to market as we do here in the US. This is where Rachel’s idea for Simple Switch took root. 5:58 - Simple Switch Simple Switch is an online marketplace for “positive impact purchasing.” They carry over 3,000 products from home goods to jewelry, and even toilet paper! The company started out of the desire to help people make simple changes in their purchasing decisions in order to support ethical businesses. Rachel saw that Amazon had such convenient ways to purchase with their “One-Click” buy feature, but ethical companies were so much harder to find, requiring hours or research, difficult payment, and long shipping times. Simple Switch was started to create an easier, more convenient place for people to find ethically made products without so much hassle. The biggest challenge for Simple Switch has been changing customer perception. Often this kind of shopping is still viewed as a niche for things you don’t need every day and will only money on if your motivation is making a positive impact. Rachel realized there are so many day-to-day items out there that are sustainably made. In our society, we’ve had it drilled into our brains that these story brands for the “feed good” factor. Simple Switch is trying to change the narrative that people can switch to ethically made brands for typical shopping needs. Owners of big brands don’t have personal relationships with the people who make their products. It really makes us all more interconnected when we can say who made our clothes and know a little bit about that person’s life and story. Consumer stories are just as powerful too. Simple Switch is always hearing about how someone’s entire perspective can change when they realize how their small decisions can have a huge global impact. Connections between consumers and impact partners create empowerment for artisans because they know that consumers value what they make, and it grows their confidence in both their skills and the quality of their handiwork. When impact partners create safer, environmentally friendly products that are not contributing harm to people or communities, our society can start to value those products as more highly desired than wasteful, fast fashion or environmentally harmful company practices. 15:24 – Launching an Ethically Led Business in 2020 Would you believe that Simple Switch officially launched in 2020? Rachel had the idea for Simple Switch five years ago, and spent a year abroad doing World Race , which allowed her to visit 11 countries in 11 months and absorb cultural context behind some of the companies Simple Switch is working with now. Traveling with younger people also gave Rachel a way to plug into a focus group of consumers. When she returned home during the Fall of 2017, Rachel thought she needed to find a technical cofounder, thinking she couldn’t do it herself. Although the learning curve has been steep, Rachel has found her way through the technical side of the business. 2017 was a year of realizing that this is a company Rachel can run. She spent time bringing on partners and testing their infrastructure and making sure it was secure before launching to the public in 2018. Now that they’ve had a year under their belt, Simple Switch has had some big growth with partnerships that have helped spread the word about the company and get more ads to a wider audience. All partners hold their inventory and orders come to Simple Switch. They then send the orders to their partners, and orders are shipped from there. Warehouses can have issues with ethical treatments of workers and environmentally wasteful practices, so the drop-ship model also helps Simple Switch with their ethical mission. 23:22 - On the Horizon Rachel’s biggest goal right now is to get Simple Switch’s name out there. She doesn’t want anyone else to feel the way she did as a conscious consumer when she was looking for ethical brands for hours. She wants people to be able to find these brands in one place, quickly. Four trillion dollars will be spent on online shopping in 2020. Rachel’s motivation for getting word out about Simple Switch is to get just one tenth of a percent of that ($4 billion) spent on ethical business. That would go toward Simple Switch projects like reforesting and carbon sequestration in rural Africa or helping women coming out of sexual trafficking. Ethical business terms are more mainstream now than they were even just five years ago. Now that we’re hearing the terms, people are still a little confused about what it means. Rachel thinks we have a great opportunity right now to take advantage of people’s awareness as they discover their desire to make better ethical and environmental decisions, and that it’s actually achievable. 26:52- Getting to Know Our Guest Learn a few fun facts about Rachel like what her guilty pleasures are, what she’s reading right now, the longest flight she’s ever been on in all her travels and who’d she’d want to be sitting next to on that flight, and of course, what it means to her to run a business with purpose. Memorable Quotes 6:59: “I really believe that every dollar you spend is a vote for the future you want. I think actual voting is very important, and second to that, I think that the way we spend our money is extremely important in creating that future.” 10:34 – “That’s why we’re called Simple Switch. We really don’t want to encourage you to buy more things, that’s not the goal. It’s things that you’re already going to be buying, we want you to switch that to these impactful companies.”  12:41 – “For me it’s really exciting that it also makes people really interconnected, so it’s not just about the economic empowerment, but if someone just knows who made their clothes or home goods, it’s a fun way to feel connected to someone either around the world or here in the United States.” 15:52 – “I was able to just try to be a good listener and hear what kind of impact needed to be made there. It shifted my perspective on what Simple Switch needed to be.” 24:20 – "Four trillion dollars is going to be spent on online shopping in 2020, just in the US. If we put one tenth of a percent of that toward ethical shopping, it would be $4 billion dollars. And I think about my incredible partners and the work they’re doing. That would go toward projects like reforestation and carbon sequestration in rural Africa where it really is affecting people’s livelihoods that the soil has been so depleted. Things like women who are coming out of sexual trafficking, and we have women both in Nepal and Bolivia who are working on products for Simple Switch. Really big systemic changes that four billion dollars put towards those projects, that’s very real change. My motivation behind getting our word out is that kind of thing where if we’re able to make this shift, it’s a game changer.” ABOUT RACHEL: Rachel Kois is the Founder and CEO of Simple Switch (simpleswitch.org) an online marketplace for ethical and impactful shopping. She believes fiercely that our everyday shopping can change the world, so she started Simple Switch to make sure there is a solid option for conscious consumers that matches the convenience of modern online shopping. She’s made friends in 28 countries and grew up with the beautiful Colorado mountains as her playground, so taking care of our planet and the people on it are very important to her. Connect with Rachel: https://www.simpleswitch.org/ https://www.facebook.com/simpleswitch.org/ https://www.instagram.com/simple.switch/ https://www.pinterest.com/simpleswitch/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-lvWd2qux1-H-5gVEZSVVQ

In this episode, Rachel reflects on the process of becoming an author, the importance of making the New York Times bestselling list, and the healing properties of creation. When Rachel published her first book, Yoga Girl, she made the New York Times bestselling list and for the first time understood the importance of it in the world of books. This time around, Rachel has been waiting all week for the list to come out. Will her agent call her with good news? What if she doesn’t make the list? How will she manage her expectations and disappointment if she doesn’t? She realizes that regardless of the list, she has created a beautiful book, and through this journey of telling her story, she was able to heal. Her worth is not determined by doing, but by being. By looking within and sharing a story that she hopes will help other people moving through similar things, she realizes that creation comes from simply BEING in that state of flow, tuned into the heart.  If Rachel has touched one single person, or just brightened one person’s day with this book, that is all that matters! This episode will remind you that your worth is not determined by doing but that your worth resides in the quality of your being. You don’t have to accomplish anything to be worthy of love. You are already so absolutely lovable - just the way you are.