Season 1 Finale: What Did We Learn From Asking the Questions?

Sixteen episodes ago, we started with a lot of questions and very few answers.

We weren't pastors. We weren't theologians. We weren't even entirely sure why we were starting a podcast.

We just knew that we kept having conversations about faith, doubt, surrender, waiting, obedience, motherhood, control, and all the places where real life doesn't fit neatly into the answers we're often given.

So for the Season 1 finale of Wine Into Water, there is no new question.

Instead, Jen and Lydia look back at what surprised them, what changed them, and what God seems to have been teaching them through a season of simply showing up and talking honestly.

They reflect on how the podcast became an unexpected lesson in surrender — walking into each episode without a script, loosening their grip on the outcome, and trusting that the Holy Spirit would meet them in the conversation.

They talk about one of the themes that kept surfacing again and again:

God wants our presence more than our performance.

He wants our hearts. He wants to be with us. And maybe much of faith is learning to do the thing directly in front of us without needing to understand where the entire road leads.

Jen and Lydia also revisit some of the ideas that changed the way they live — from rethinking Sabbath as a gift instead of a rule, to seeing the Proverbs 31 woman through a different lens, to realizing how often we create expectations for ourselves that God never actually gave us.

And they talk about why the questions matter.

Because we live in a world overflowing with answers. Confident ones. Contradictory ones. Answers about what to believe, how to live, what to eat, how to parent, and exactly what God must be doing.

But sometimes faith isn't about finding the perfect answer.

Sometimes it's about being willing to wrestle with God, ask the question, stay in the conversation, and accept that there are things we may never fully understand this side of heaven.

This episode is for anyone who:

• Has listened along with Season 1 and wants to reflect with us
• Feels like everyone else has faith figured out
• Has questions they aren't sure they're allowed to ask
• Struggles with surrender, perfectionism, or needing to understand the outcome
• Needs the reminder that God wants their heart more than their performance
• Wants to know they're not the only one still figuring this out

Because maybe the point was never to answer every question.

Maybe the questions are part of how we draw closer to God.

Maybe surrender looks like showing up, doing what's in front of us, and trusting Him with whatever comes next.

And maybe the greatest gift of this season is realizing that none of us are asking these questions alone.

What Does It Mean to Be a Faithful Parent?

There is no shortage of parenting advice.

Protect them. Challenge them. Give them freedom. Set boundaries. Build their confidence. Let them fail. Monitor the technology. Keep them safe. Form their faith.

And somehow, underneath all of it, many of us are carrying the quiet fear that if we don't get it exactly right, we'll somehow get our children wrong.

In this episode of Wine Into Water, Jen and Lydia ask what it actually means to be a faithful parent in a world that looks very different from the one we grew up in.

They talk about raising children in the age of smartphones and AI, trying to protect kids without controlling every part of their lives, and how the rhythms and conversations inside our homes may shape their faith far more than any perfect parenting strategy ever could.

Jen shares what happened when her nine-year-old asked her, “How do you even know that it's real?” — and how that question changed the way she thinks about forming faith in her children.

Maybe our job isn't to make our children believe.

Maybe it's to tell them the story so faithfully that when they encounter Jesus for themselves, they recognize Him.

Lydia reflects on raising two generations of children and watching some of her older kids wander from the faith they were raised in. Together, they wrestle with the fear every parent knows: What if I didn't do enough? What if I did too much? What if they walk away?

And then they come back to one of the hardest truths of parenting:

We were never actually in control.

Through the story of Job, Lydia paints a picture of two very different ways to parent — with clenched fists or with open hands. One tries to manage every outcome. The other remembers that God loves our children even more than we do.

Jen and Lydia also talk about why children need some rocky soil: struggle, risk, mistakes, disappointment, and opportunities to discover that they can get back up again.

Because protecting our children from every hard thing may also protect them from discovering resilience, hope, courage, and their own need for God.

This episode is for anyone who:

• Wonders whether they're doing enough to form their child's faith
• Feels overwhelmed by parenting in a world of technology, social media, and AI
• Has a child who is questioning or wandering from faith
• Struggles with letting go of control
• Wants to raise resilient children without trying to create a perfect childhood
• Needs permission to enjoy their children instead of constantly trying to manage them

Because maybe faithful parenting isn't about creating the perfect conditions.

Maybe it's about planting seeds, tending the soil, letting our children struggle enough to grow, and trusting that they belong to God before they ever belonged to us.

Maybe our job is simply to love them, guide them, enjoy them — and learn to hold them with open hands.

How Do You Trust God When He Gives You a Big Risk?

What do you do when you believe God is asking you to take a step that makes absolutely no sense on paper?

Maybe it’s leaving the job. Moving your family. Saying yes to something you never imagined for your life. Stepping into a calling that feels bigger than you. Or simply taking the next step when you have no idea where it will lead.

In this episode of Wine Into Water, Jen and Lydia talk about what it really looks like to trust God when obedience feels risky.

Jen shares about leaving the corporate world, moving her family back to Iowa, and the moments when she had to move forward without knowing what the outcome would be. Lydia reflects on a life filled with big yeses — including adopting eleven children and preparing to donate a kidney to one of her daughters — and why the biggest acts of obedience haven't necessarily come without fear.

Together, they wrestle with a hard truth: sometimes God doesn't give us the whole plan.

He gives us enough light for the next step.

And sometimes we take that step believing we know where He's leading, only to discover that the road changes. Doors close. Plans fall apart. The thing we thought God was asking us to do turns out to be different than we imagined.

Maybe faith isn't about being certain of the outcome.

Maybe it's about being certain of the One you're walking with.

Jen and Lydia also talk about the temptation to compare our calling to someone else's, the pressure to chase the life the world tells us we should want, and why obedience often looks far less glamorous than it does from the outside.

Because following God isn't always Instagram-ready.

Sometimes it's exciting. Sometimes it's terrifying. Sometimes it's beautiful. And sometimes, as Lydia puts it, it's really poopy.

But there is something extraordinary about looking back at a road you never would have chosen for yourself and realizing that God was with you through all of it.

This episode is for anyone who:

• Feels like God may be asking them to take a risk
• Is waiting for certainty before taking the next step
• Has taken a leap of faith and is wondering why things aren't unfolding the way they expected
• Finds themselves comparing their calling to someone else's
• Wants to trust God without needing to control the outcome

Because maybe trusting God doesn't mean knowing how the story ends.

Maybe it means taking the step in front of you, letting Him show you the next one, and trusting that what is meant for you will not miss you.

And maybe, years from now, you'll look back at the road obedience took you down and think:

What a ride.