What's God Got To Do With It? With Leanne Ellington

Leanne is back to continue exploring this complex topic of worthiness, diving into the paradox of feeling worthy when you DON'T feel worthy. Once again Leanne talks about the 5 Blocks to God’s love, originally introduced as a 'Self-Imaging' formula, and how these blocks, if not addressed, can hinder your experience of love and worthiness. This time however, the spotlight turns to the third ingredient and God Block: Self-Worth, as Leanne emphasizes the importance of understanding what you're "weighing and measuring" to define your own worth. She shares personal experiences of tying self-worth SOLELY to external factors like appearance, relationships, and achievement, and how goal-setting can be great, but if that's the ONLY place you are finding your worth, that's where the trouble lies. Leanne encourages and invites you to create a new definition of self-worth, only this time around taking a "spiritual currency" into account and seeking God's perspective on your divine worth, teaching you how to embrace the concept of taking radical ownership of your own Self-Image... while inviting God into the process as your co-pilot and divine partner. HOST: Leanne Ellington // @leanneellington // StresslessEating.com To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this powerful conversation, Angie Smith gets honest about the pressure so many of us feel to perform, prove, perfect, and become whoever we think the room needs us to be. And often, the identities we wear so confidently—“the achiever,” “the responsible one,” “the perfectionist,” “the strong one”—may have less to do with who we truly are and more to do with how we learned to feel safe, accepted, and enough. As a bestselling author, Bible teacher, speaker, and developmental psychologist, Angie brings a unique perspective to the intersection of psychology, identity, and faith. In her new book, Into the Deep: Finding Relief from Pressure, Exhaustion, and the Need to Perform in a Shallow World, she invites us to move beyond surface-level survival and discover what happens when we stop trying to earn an identity that God says was never ours to earn in the first place. In this episode, we explore the intersection of neuroscience and faith, why affirmations like “I am enough” don't always change what we believe deep down, and how perfectionism, people-pleasing, comparison, impostor syndrome, and control can become strategies for protecting ourselves from rejection or shame. We also talk about what happens when our theology says we're loved, chosen, and worthy, but our self-image tells a completely different story. We bring the conversation into food and body, the exhausting belief that changing something externally will finally make us feel different internally, and what it looks like to stop using our bodies, achievements, relationships, or productivity as evidence of our worth. Angie also shares what it means to trust God when trusting Him doesn't guarantee the outcome we want—and how to recognize when we've turned even our relationship with God into another place to perform. This isn't about becoming a shinier, better, more impressive version of yourself. It's about questioning the patterns and identities you've built around performance, approval, and control—and discovering who you already are when you stop trying to become whoever the room needs you to be. GUEST: @angiesmith19Angie's Website: AngieSmithMinistries.comGet the Book: Into the Deep: Finding Relief from Pressure, Exhaustion, and the Need to Perform in a Shallow World — available wherever books are sold (releases October 6, 2026) HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this powerful conversation, Dr. Alison Cook gets honest about something many of us don't realize: we can know all the right things about God, healing, and ourselves—and still have parts of us that don't feel safe, connected, or secure. As a psychologist of religion, licensed therapist, and bestselling author, Alison has spent decades exploring the intersection of psychology, faith, and spiritual formation. But in her new book, The Secure Soul: Finding Inner Strength and Connection When Trust Doesn't Come Easy, she takes us beyond simply understanding our patterns and into the deeper work of tending to the parts of ourselves that learned to protect, perform, control, or disconnect in order to feel safe. In this episode, we explore the intersection of neuroscience and faith, how early experiences can shape our brains, nervous systems, self-image, and even the way we experience God. We talk about the difference between who we truly are and who we learned to become in order to feel safe, why some of the behaviors we desperately want to "fix" may actually be attempts to protect us, and what happens when our theology says "God loves me" but something inside of us still struggles to let that love land. We also bring this conversation into food and body, perfectionism, self-criticism, and the pressure so many women feel to become a better version of themselves. Alison shares what it means to "Recognize & Return," why receiving love and care can sometimes feel harder than giving it, and how healthy self-trust and trust in God can work together instead of competing with each other. This isn't about finding one more thing about yourself to fix. It's about learning how to stop abandoning the parts of yourself that need your presence—and discovering a deeper kind of security rooted in connection with yourself, with others, and ultimately with God. GUEST: Dr. Alison Cook // @dralisoncookWebsite: www.DrAlisonCook.comPodcast: The Best of You PodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bestofyoupodcastFREE QUIZ: Uncover the role you learned to play in your familyGet the Book: The Secure Soul: Finding Inner Strength and Connection When Trust Doesn't Come Easy — available now wherever books are sold HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Colleen was a pastor. She was teaching God's word, leading others, preaching identity in Christ. But behind closed doors, she felt like a hypocrite. She knew what God said about her. She could teach it. She believed it was true... for everyone else. But for her, it felt like words on a page that wouldn't land in her heart. And on top of that, she was carrying a lifetime of shame about her body. Since she was eight years old, shopping in the "chubby girls" section, she'd been told she had a problem to fix. She'd been on every diet. She'd tried to overachieve in everything else to make up for the one area she couldn't get right. She'd been given mixed messages her whole life: skinny is beautiful, but you're okay just the way you are. Don't overeat, but finish everything on your plate. Sugar is bad, but it's the reward for being good. By the time menopause hit, she was gaining more weight, trying harder and harder to lose it, and sinking into the lowest point of her life. She felt like a failure. She felt disgusted with herself. And the worst part? She couldn't reconcile what she knew in her head with what she felt in her heart. She had seen God heal her miraculously from incurable diseases. So why couldn't she get from what she knew about her identity in Christ to actually seeing it and feeling it in her life? She kept thinking: I'm the problem. I have to fix myself. Colleen had fought so many battles—behavioral modification, diet plans, spiritual disciplines, positive affirmations—but she was fighting the wrong battles. And when you fight the wrong battles, you don't win the war. When she heard Leanne's podcast with Dr. Lee Warren, she cried through the whole thing. She thought, This is too good to be true. But she was desperate. She had nowhere else to turn. And she asked God, Did you put Leanne in my path? In this powerful case study, Colleen shares how she finally learned to go to the root instead of just trying to fix the behavior. How she dismantled the lies that had infiltrated every area of her life and built what she calls "new beautiful beliefs"—not positive affirmations, but truth that actually landed in her bones. How she learned to be friends with her body again, to take off the minister hat and just be the woman, the essence, the soul God created her to be. Today, Colleen is at peace with herself for the first time in her life. She's not obsessed with her weight or her size. She's not fixated on what she looks like. She's learning to care for her body instead of punishing it. She's starting strength training—not to lose weight, but to get stronger and thrive. She's wearing clothes that make her feel alive instead of hiding in frumpy baggy outfits. She's showing up in rooms without worrying about how she looks or what she said. She's ushering in God's peace and grace instead of getting pulled into other people's chaos. And the sweetest part? She has a hope-filled expectation for the future. Instead of dreading getting older, fatter, more wrinkled, she's asking, What's the abundant part of life here for me in this season? She's living Psalm 92: Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They will bear fruit even in old age. If you've ever felt like you know God's promises are true but they don't feel true for you, or if you've ever felt like a hypocrite because you can't receive what you teach, Colleen's story is for you. Because healing isn't about trying harder or praying more or fasting more. It's about going to the root. It's about learning how to take your thoughts captive in a way that actually works. And it's about finally surrendering—not giving up, but letting God show you the right battle to fight so you can win the war. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this powerful conversation, Lysa TerKeurst gets honest about something most of us don't want to admit: we all have control issues. And often, what we call "being responsible" or "planning ahead" is actually fear disguised as strength. As the founder of Proverbs 31 Ministries and a #1 New York Times bestselling author, Lysa has spent years helping women navigate boundaries, forgiveness, and faith. But in her new book, Making Peace With What I Can't Control, she reveals her own struggle with trying to change people who don't want to change, prevent outcomes she feared, and manage things that were never hers to control in the first place. In this episode, we explore the intersection of neuroscience and faith, how our brains are wired to seek certainty and safety, and what happens when our need for control bumps up against our relationship with God. Lysa shares how to know when we've crossed the line from healthy responsibility into fear-driven control, what it actually looks like to surrender without giving up, and how to make peace with trusting God's heart when we don't understand what He allows. This isn't about becoming passive. It's about learning the difference between what is actually ours to steward and what was never ours to carry. If you've ever felt exhausted from overthinking, trying to fix others, or wanting to figure it all out, this conversation is for you. GUEST: @LysaTerKeurstLysa's Website: www.LysaTerKeurst.comLysa's Podcast: Therapy & TheologyGet the Book: Making Peace With What I Can't Control — available wherever books are sold (releases September 15, 2026) HOST: Leanne Ellington // @leanneellington // StresslessEating.com To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.  Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.