Conversations with Cinthia

Lean On Me

Times like this, times of change and uncertainty and adjustment, cause us to look where we lean and consider what we've made our foundation, our support, our hope, our everything.  Maybe you've always tried to lean on God but are surprised at how shaken you feel by something that's happened.  Maybe you're upset about the virus or the economy or the decisions made by others.  Maybe you are in a specific situation that involves sheltering in a very stressful place or trying to figure out how to support yourself and your family when your livelihood has disintegrated in a matter of weeks.  The ground on which you stand may be shifting rapidly, and you may not have the strength to deal with the unknown.  God knows.  He is stable and strong.  When our understanding runs out, we find it was always more limited than we knew.  Join Cinthia to look at what it means to lean on God and not be disappointed.

The Dilemma of Change during COVID-19

We are in a time of tremendous change, and we don't really know where it's headed.  Change isn't new, though, and today Cinthia looks at how to deal with it at this time in history.  What has changed for you?  How are you dealing with it?  Cinthia reminds us that, while God is not the author of harm, He is also not surprised by the current changes.  These changes cannot prevent Him from making us more like the people He intended us to be.  In fact, even while He grieves for the loss and destruction that mars the world He made, He still triumphantly uses change to produce growth, beauty, character, relationships, and so many other good things.  Join Cinthia to explore what it means to continue becoming the best version of yourself, the person you were meant to be, even in the midst of the current change.  

The Paradox of Unbelief

Some people struggle with faith; some struggle with trust.  What is the difference, and what are we supposed to do when our faith waivers or our trust wanes?  What does God do when this happens?  Cinthia looks again at the father who approached Jesus's disciples for help regarding his demon-possessed son.  After years of agony, the man held on to hope but also was tormented by doubt.  Jesus was worthy to handle both and still is.  Join Cinthia to explore what it means to trust the One Who died for us when our doubts seem bigger than our answers.

I Am With You Always (first aired 1-25-15)

The world is full of anxiety today, and it tends to prevent us from functioning optimally, being creative, and connecting with ourselves and each other. Negativity comes naturally to the human brain.  Cinthia explores what it means to let God give us the peace Jesus left us as His parting gift -- His own peace, the peace He had on earth when He slept during the storm and faced soldiers in Gethsemane after sweating blood.  Join Cinthia to look at what it means to open the gift and live it out.

Relationships 101, Part 5: A World That Demands Constant Attention

Do you ever feel so hurried or pressured that you respond too quickly, maybe at the expense of choosing the best response for the situation?  Our lives today can be so busy, so chaotic and pressured, that our relationships start to suffer from quick responses and adrenaline-soaked conversations.  Today, Cinthia explores "the power of pause" and what it does for our relationships when we learn to stop, ask for a moment, take a breath, check in with our value systems, and gain some clarity on what is actually at stake in the situation (and what isn't).  Take a few moments to soak in this episode, and learn how to get more moments when you need them.

Relationships 101, Part 4: Boundaries Within Relationship: Self and Others

These days, "boundaries" is a word that arises in popular conversation.  Somehow, though, we still don't display better boundaries for all our popular understanding.  Today, Cinthia offers the following guideline for boundaries within relationship: "What I value, I will protect; what you value, I will respect."  She also uses a word we don't often hear in popular culture these days: self-control.  What do boundaries and self-control have to do with one another?  What do they have to do with Jesus's teaching that our "yes" should be "yes" and our "no" should be "no?"  As always, Cinthia presents timeless truth in a way that's probably slightly different than the way you've heard it a thousand times, generating lots of food for thought and inspiring practical steps toward being the person you were meant to be.  Join her for the fourth part of an amazing series!

Relationships 101: Part 3: Understanding and Accepting Gender, Temperament, and Personality Differences

And now for the specifics...  Having a relationship with Person A is very different from having a relationship with Person B!  Having spent the last two episodes helping us with the basics of making relationships work with fallen human beings in general, today Cinthia tackles what it means to be in relationship with an individual.  Gender, temperament, and personality can hugely impact our relational functioning, but these differences are often ignored or even denied in our culture.  As a result, we are rarely educated to have awareness of how these things impact our communication, let alone actually start to communicate respectfully with people who differ from ourselves in these areas.  Join Cinthia for a quick primer in how gender, temperament, and personality impact our relational functioning and how to improve your relationships with people who may differ from you in these areas.

Relationships 101, Part 2: Appropriate Expectations, cont'd.

What does it look like to have appropriate expectations in a relationship between adult human beings?  Last week, Cinthia launched a course on how to enjoy relationships, which are inherently complex, without making them complicated.  Today she continues this exploration, looking in more detail at what it means to have healthy expectations for ourselves and others, but without lapsing into parenting each other or becoming judgmental and petty.  She also discusses the difference between acceptance and agreement when someone messes up, even when the "someone" is you.

Relationships 101, Part 1: Introduction and Appropriate Expectations

Does it ever seem like your education prepared you for everything but life with other humans?  Do you ever wish you could get a really practical course in how to manage human relationships?  Today Cinthia tells us how to let relationships be complex without making them complicated.  She introduces such topics as having appropriate expectations, keeping good boundaries, respecting basic differences in gender, temperament, and personality, and living peacefully in a world that demands our immediate attention all the time.  Today's focus is on appropriate expectations.  If you've heard people say that you should let go of all expectations so you won't be disappointed, Cinthia has another perspective to share, one that could help you make a lot more sense of how to approach relationships.  Join Cinthia to get started!

How Do I Love You?

What is it like to be loved by you?  Our love is not as pure and perfect as God's and is flavored by our personalities, habits, etc.  Do your loved ones know you love them?  Do they enjoy your love?  Cinthia discusses how to offer love that feels like love to your loved ones.  This includes some discussion of how forgiveness relates to the restoration of trust, how to accept forgiveness without continuing to focus the relationship on making yourself feel better, and learning how another person likes to be loved instead of offering only what you would like to be offered.  Join Cinthia to consider how your love might be coming across to others and how to make your love that much sweeter to your loved ones.