Healing doesn’t always look like putting the pieces of your old life back together. Sometimes, it’s allowing God to meet you right in the middle of the pain and begin creating something new.

In this episode of In the Middle, Jennie explores the healing season that follows the shattering of betrayal, separation, and divorce. She shares how healing requires us to slow down, acknowledge what hurts, process our emotions, recognize the lies we may have begun believing, and replace them with the truth of who God says we are.

Healing is not about rushing to “get over it” or pretending everything is okay. It is about allowing God into the broken places, learning to surrender what we cannot control, practicing forgiveness, and trusting that our suffering does not get the final word.

If you are somewhere between the life you thought you would have and the life God is rebuilding, this episode is a reminder that you do not have to have everything figured out. God will meet you right there—in the middle—and gently lead you toward healing, restoration, and ultimately, flourishing.

In the Middle: Divorce Healing for Catholic Women ·

“Do you not understand that my whole life just broke apart?”

That’s what Jennie wanted to say to the world while it kept moving: the emails, the groceries, the demands of ordinary life. If you’re a Catholic woman grieving a divorce, you know the feeling. Your marriage has ended for whatever reason and you find your life shattered into a million pieces. It is a death but a different kind of sadness and grief. There’s no funeral, no casseroles at the door, and no ritual for saying goodbye. Sometimes the person you’re grieving is still alive.

In this episode, Jennie doesn’t hurry towards a happy ending. She shares her journey in the shattering, the first and hardest phase of healing after divorce, and shares what it looked like at the end of her own 35-year marriage:

• The journal prayers she wrote at her lowest: “I know that joy comes from You, Lord, but I don’t feel it right now.”
• The Christmas she could only manage a tree and stockings
• The sleepless nights when she couldn’t pray the rosary and could only hold the beads and whisper, “Jesus”

What you’ll learn

• Why divorce grief feels like a death, and why it’s so confusing
• How to pray when you can’t find the words
• The movements of shattering: shock, trauma, trying to fix it, acceptance and the first flickers of hope
• Clean pain vs. dirty pain: how to stop piling shame (“It’s my fault. I’m not enough.”) on top of real loss
• A simple question for when a trigger hits: What do I actually know to be true?
• Why your Catholic faith gives you Good Friday before Easter, and permission to grieve

You don’t have to turn your ashes into beauty today. You don’t need the whole map. You only need the next faithful step.

When Life Doesn't Turn Out the Way You Expected: Welcome to In the Middle

The person you imagined beside you on the front porch has changed. The family, the holidays, even the way you see yourself may look nothing like you planned. If you're a Catholic woman walking through betrayal, separation or divorce, this episode is for you.

After 35 years of marriage, Jennie's life changed in ways she never imagined. In this deeply personal episode, she shares why Catholic Moms in the Middle is becoming In the Middle: Divorce Healing for Catholic Women, and why she believes God has been leading her here.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why divorce can feel so lonely, even when you're surrounded by people who love you
• The questions so many Catholic women carry quietly into the pew: Is God upset with me? Do I still belong? How do I forgive?
• The gap Jennie sees in the Church, and why women need a place that doesn't minimize marriage or their suffering
• The prayer that changed everything: "God, please do not waste this."
• How to choose the legacy this chapter of your story will leave behind
• Why you don't need the rest of your life figured out, just your next faithful step

"You do not need to know what your life looks like five years from now. Sometimes you simply need to ask, 'What is my next faithful step?' and then take it."

Wherever you are in your story, Jennie will meet you in the middle.

You don't have to walk this road alone.
Join Jennie's free monthly gathering on Zoom for Catholic women walking through divorce, an evening of teaching, prayer and real connection:
https://www.jennieguinnlifecoach.com/monthly-gatherings

Find more encouragement and resources at inthemiddlehealing.com

Have you ever searched everywhere for something, only to discover it had been right in front of you all along? That’s exactly what happened when I “lost” my son’s college diploma. I remembered bringing it in from the mailbox. I remembered thinking, I need to put this somewhere safe. But after that? Nothing.

I searched everywhere. My family helped me search. I retraced my steps. I even asked St. Anthony for his intercession. The problem wasn’t that the diploma was gone. The problem was that I had convinced myself I knew what I was looking for. I pictured a large, flat cardboard envelope. In reality, the diploma had arrived in a cardboard tube—and it had been sitting safely in my dining room all along. I was looking right past it because it didn’t look the way I expected it to look.

And isn't that something we do in life, too?

We decide what an answered prayer should look like. We decide what needs to happen before we can have peace or joy. We decide who another person is the difficult coworker, the frustrating family member, the stubborn spouse and then we begin noticing everything that confirms what we've already decided about them.

And sometimes we even do it to ourselves.

I'm not enough. I'm too much. I'm a failure. I'm damaged. I've missed my chance.

But what if we're looking through the wrong lens?

In this episode, I'm sharing what one lost diploma taught me about allowing God to change the way we see our circumstances, our relationships, ourselves and even Him.

We'll talk about:

• Why our expectations can keep us from recognizing what God is already doing
• How we can become so focused on someone's faults that we stop seeing their goodness
• The difference between healthy discernment and reducing someone to their worst moments
• How our wounds can shape the way we see other people
• The labels we place on ourselves that God never gave us
• Why peace and joy may not require our circumstances to change
• What the disciples on the road to Emmaus and Mary Magdalene can teach us about recognizing Jesus when He doesn't appear the way we expected

Maybe finding what you're searching for doesn't require searching harder. Maybe it requires seeing differently.

So as you listen, I invite you to bring one question to prayer:

Holy Spirit, where are You asking me to see differently?

Maybe it's a person.

Maybe it's a prayer.

Maybe it's your circumstances.

Maybe it's yourself.

Or maybe you've been searching everywhere for peace, joy, hope, purpose, or rest—only to discover that what your heart really needs has been right in front of you all along.

Jennie Guinn is a Catholic life coach and founder of Catholic Moms in the Middle. She accompanies midlife women through betrayal, separation, divorce and major life transitions by helping them encounter God’s healing and rediscover their purpose.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Jesus Makes Lemonade

Sometimes God uses the most ordinary moments to teach us the deepest lessons.

For me, it happened while driving in the car with my granddaughter, Penny, singing and dancing to Lemonade by Forrest Frank. Watching her simply enjoy the ride made me wonder: When did we stop living in the present and start trying so hard to control the destination?

Life doesn't always unfold the way we imagined. Plans change. People disappoint us. Prayers aren't always answered the way we hoped. And suddenly, we find ourselves living in the middle—between what was and what comes next. But what if God isn't waiting for us at the end of the story? What if Jesus is already here, meeting us in the middle?

In this episode, I share what a simple song about lemonade, climbing Cross Mountain in Medjugorje, and my own journey through heartbreak and divorce have taught me about suffering, healing, and transformation. God doesn't always remove the lemons from our lives. Instead, He enters into the sour and painful places and pours His grace into them.

Jesus, the Living Water, can transform what we place in His hands into something we never expected. The difficult chapters don't disappear. But they can become part of something new.

In this episode, I talk about trusting God in the middle of the story, finding Jesus in our crosses, allowing suffering to change our perspective, and believing that God is still writing even when life looks nothing like we planned. If you're holding some lemons today, remember this: Don't confuse the middle with the ending. The Author is still writing. And our God doesn't waste anything placed in His hands not one tear, one prayer, one disappointment, or one season of waiting.

When life gives you lemons, remember: our Jesus makes the sweetest lemonade.

Jennie Guinn is a Catholic life coach and founder of Catholic Moms in the Middle. She accompanies midlife women through divorce, grief, and major life transitions, helping them encounter God’s healing and rediscover their purpose.

Have you ever looked around your life and quietly thought, "This isn't what I expected?"

Whether you're navigating divorce, grief, betrayal, an empty nest, illness, retirement, or another unexpected transition, it's easy to long for the life that once felt familiar.

In this episode, I share how a walk through my favorite state park after a devastating ice storm became a powerful metaphor for healing. As I walked trails that had been rerouted and stood among fallen trees, God revealed three life-changing truths about navigating disappointment with faith.

In this episode, you'll discover:

Why it's natural to long for what feels familiar even when it wasn't healthy.

How God often brings new life from places that look devastated.

Why you don't need the whole map only the courage to take the next faithful step.

If you've been wondering where God is in the middle of your story, this episode is a gentle reminder that while the landscape of your life may have changed, the One leading you never has. Because the middle isn't where your story ends. It may be the very place where God begins writing something more beautiful than you ever imagined.

Jennie Guinn is a Catholic life coach and founder of Catholic Moms in the Middle. She accompanies midlife women through divorce, grief, and major life transitions, helping them encounter God’s healing and rediscover their purpose.

Do It Again, Daddy: Learning to Trust God Like a Child

What if the greatest obstacle to peace isn't your circumstances, but your fear?

This week I share a simple but powerful moment as I watched my son toss my granddaughter into the air. Again and again, she laughed and shouted, "Do it again, Daddy!" Never once worrying if he would drop her. Never questioning if she was safe. She simply trusted.

Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, many of us lose that kind of faith.

We trade trust for control.
Joy for worry.
Surrender for striving.
And instead of resting in the Father's arms, we spend our days trying to hold everything together ourselves.

If you've ever stayed awake replaying worst-case scenarios, worried about your children, struggled to surrender a dream, or wondered if God really has your best in mind, this episode is for you.

I will discuss:

• Why fear often disguises itself as control, worry, and doubt
• What Jesus meant when He told us to become like little children
• How to trust God even when life feels uncertain
• Three practical ways to become more childlike and rest in the Father's love

Friend, the God who has carried you this far is not about to drop you now.

Maybe it's time to stop asking, "What if?" and start believing that whatever comes, your Father will catch you.

Jennie Guinn is a Catholic life coach and founder of Catholic Moms in the Middle. She accompanies midlife women through divorce, grief, and major life transitions, helping them encounter God’s healing and rediscover their purpose.

Like you were walking through a tunnel you never expected and felt unsure how long it would last, wondering if you’d ever see light again?

In this episode of Catholic Moms in the Middle, I share a powerful reflection inspired by traveling through the mountain tunnels of Italy and Switzerland. What began as an ordinary journey became a beautiful reminder of how God walks with us through the hardest seasons of life.

Whether you are facing disappointment, grief, divorce, loneliness, uncertainty, exhaustion, or simply a season where life feels heavy, this episode will remind you that you are not alone in the darkness.

I share:

• the difference between climbing mountains and walking through tunnels
• why some seasons require strength while others require surrender
• how God provides lights, helpers, and hope even in the darkest places
• three practical ways to keep moving forward when you cannot yet see the light

If you’ve been tired of being strong…
if your healing feels slower than expected…
if you’ve been questioning where God is in the middle of your pain…

I pray this conversation will encourage your heart and remind you that the tunnel is not your final destination.

Because even in the darkness, God is still guiding you home.

Jennie Guinn is a Catholic life coach and founder of Catholic Moms in the Middle. She accompanies midlife women through divorce, grief, and major life transitions, helping them encounter God’s healing and rediscover their purpose.