I'm doing something different today! In celebration of the 100th episode, I asked you all on Instagram for 100 questions to answer, and I'm really excited just to have fun and allow you guys to get to know me on a different level. A lot of these are personal, a lot of them are lighthearted, a lot of them are fun and hopefully some of them you'll find helpful to you and your life. Believe me, you want to listen to the end.

I was talking with a friend the other day and she asked me the question, what are you fighting for this year? And it took me a minute to answer her, but after a pause, I finally said, “You know, I think I'm fighting for fun.” I know that might sound trite or silly, but I'm realizing it's—it's not that silly, it's actually necessary.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of surface, trite, make-it-what-you-want-it Christianity. I want the real God of the universe. I want what He has to say, even if it's hard to hear it. This book showed me the practices that we can do as believers to welcome Jesus into our very real lives and to hear His very real voice a little bit clearer. I'll be honest. These disciplines, they aren't easy. They are not for the faint of heart, but they are good. And they have changed me.

Today, I'm going to be sharing all of our favorite Christmas traditions. And sharing this is really just to encourage you to make time for the most important things, and hopefully just to invite you into our family for a little bit in sharing how Will and I have brought our different sets of our own family's traditions and made them our own.

So when I became a mom, during that newborn phase of life, it was very hard to determine which way was up or down. The Lord taught me this simple practice. It doesn't take a lot of time, but still to this day, it speaks straight to my heart and it grounds me. It's simply focusing on one word throughout your whole day.

Welcome to this month's edition of the Nancy Ray Book Club, where I choose 12 books to read in a year, and I invite you to join me in reading them, and then I share my takeaways in the book of the month every month. This month I am thrilled to be talking about Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

In today's episode, I want to remind all of us of three things the Lord calls us to, in any and every season of our lives. Three things that, if I'm honest, I feel like they've been pushed to the side. Three things that I believe were part of the founding of this country and three things that we absolutely must maintain if we are to move forward.

This week, we're going to be talking about how to get the most out of your week with the ideal week exercise.

Often times, this is the time of year where we go a little off the rails with our eating, our spending, with our planning. We just do too much of all of it.

So, my encouragement to you today is that if you want to finish this year strong, you have to start now.

In it, Rebecca outlines four rhythms for a life of peace and purpose. I couldn't help but think back to my episode just a couple weeks ago on self-care, because I feel like this book is a deeper dive and how we can live out these rhythms and have a healthy, mature life as a believer. All in all, I love the book. I feel like Rebecca is somewhat of a soul sister and I can't wait for you to hear my top takeaways.

We are constantly hearing and seeing the message of self-care. Take time for yourself. Don't forget to care for yourself. Drink water. Exercise. Go get your nails done. I have had so many mixed feelings about the phrase “self-care” for a long time.

So, today, I'm going to dive into the good and bad of self-care and offer a better, more holistic approach.

Today I'm talking with my friend, Chrystal Evans Hurst, and let me just say, this woman, I love her. This is for you if you maybe feel stuck in a rut with your prayers, or, like she talks about in our conversation, if you want to activate the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life to be more real, and fresh, and conversational.

School shopping as a parent. It's not always so pretty. There's a lot to manage. There's a lot to take hold of. And I've learned this: there's a lot of different correspondence and papers, a lot of different things going on.

I don't have a ton of years under my belt, but I am committed to putting systems, and rhythms, and routines into place as we go back to school that will allow us to flourish instead of being stressed out.

Today, I want to encourage and kind of pause and coach you through a few exercises and questions that will hopefully help bring clarity to this year, to exactly where you are, and show you that it's not just important to cast vision for your life or your work years down the road, but it's also important to have a vision for the current season of life that you are in, and dare I say it, even for 2020.

I'm chatting with Allie Casazza today, and she shares about her conviction about building a life that serves you, happening to your day, being the CEO of your own home, and stepping into the authority that you have as a believer.

Listen, this episode gets hype. It's inspiring. It's challenging, and it's full of practical advice that will help you in your actual life.

It is the middle of summer. I know you know this, but sometimes it's good to hear a reminder of where you are, so you can reset your thinking and really make sure you're on the right track.

So today it's simply going to be like a quick glance at your compass in the middle of 2020 to make sure that, hey, you're on the right track—you're living the life you want to be living!

Today, Will (my husband) and I cover a huge range of topics. We talk about how we fight, parenting, intimacy, communication, faith, money, date nights, everything. I'm really excited to wrap up Part 2 of our conversation together!

Today, I have my favorite human as my guest, my husband Will Ray. We are doing a question-and-answer series all about marriage and we cover a huge range of topics, and because of that, you don't just get to hear from us this week, you're also going to hear from us again next week.

Today’s conversation with Sally Clarkson felt like a big hug from your mom—that you really needed. We talk all about making memories with our children, and to be honest I had this idea in my head that it would be all about planning these grand, extravagant trips and celebrations, but it wasn’t. It was about the day-to-day life, about the little things, and really, it’s all about your health and happiness as a mom.