Table Talks with the Tares

How do you know you're showing up the way you mean to? You won't unless you stop to check.

MJ and Ash are a husband and wife with completely opposite wiring. Raising kids in the years the intent is high, but the capacity is low. Every week they get honest about the story playing underneath the home they’re trying to build together, share notes and recalibrate before the next week. Because wanting better doesn’t always mean doing better.

Episodes

Mar 31, 2025

44 min

In this episode, we pick up where we left off and dive into part 2 of our discipleship conversation—this time unpacking the idea that discipleship is more like a lab, or apprenticeship, than a lecture process. It’s meant to involve on-the-job training that exposes the vulnerable parts of your life where you are obeying and following Jesus. If you’ve been wondering whether or not you’ve been obedient to the mandate for discipleship, we hope this encourages you.
Resources mentioned:
Podcast episode: Redefining Discipleship: A Blueprint for Life on Life
Part 1 of this series: Ep 117 - Discipleship in 2025. So what is it really?
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore.
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

Mar 24, 2025

32 min

We’ve been asking ourselves: What does discipleship really look like in 2025?
After listening to a podcast episode by Jeremy Prior on life-on-life discipleship, we’ve found ourselves rethinking what it means to be a disciple-maker.
This episode is raw and honest and full of real-time processing. If you’ve ever felt like discipleship should be more than a Bible study and a once-a-month coffee, this conversation is for you.
Resources mentioned:
Podcast episode: Redefining Discipleship: A Blueprint for Life on Life
Next episode recommended: Ep 110 - Is the Great Commission for Everyone? What it means to make disciples.
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore.
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

Mar 17, 2025

46 min

In this episode Ashley interviews MJ to get his take and experience being married to a vacillator. We discuss the experience in our marriage over the last 9 years and the journey of a vacillator/avoider couple.
 
Resources mentioned:
Book: How We Love, Expanded Edition: Discover Your Love Style, Enhance Your Marriage
Love Style Quiz: What is a Love Style?
Table Talks with the Tares
Ep 26 - How MJ Loves, the Avoider, What I would tell my younger self
Next episode recommended:
Ep 112 - What's it like being married to an Avoider?
 
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore.
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

Mar 10, 2025

40 min

In this episode we're discussing how we're approaching having baby #3. Is this third one really easier or is it really just adding more to the chaos of parenting?
 
Resources mentioned:
Podcast Juice: https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/buffalo-trace.html 
 
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: www.honestunderscore.com.
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

Mar 3, 2025

48 min

In this episode we talk about the different default settings we have when we consider bringing up offenses someone has committed against you. One prefers to confront with it, the other would rather absorb it and move on. We explore our unique approaches to the issue of confrontation and how it helps us shape a balanced ethic when teaching correction and confrontation to our kids.
 
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore .
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.
 

Feb 24, 2025

42 min

In this episode, we reflect on our time with my mom and how her visit highlighted the cultural differences in how we each handle conflict—one shaped by honor/shame and the other by justice/guilt. We explore how these deep-rooted approaches surface in marriage and what it means to navigate apologies, accountability, and grace when worlds collide.
 
Resources mentioned:
How We Love, Expanded Edition: Discover Your Love Style, Enhance Your Marriage
Next episode recommended:
Ep 112 - What's it like being married to an Avoider?
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore .
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

Feb 17, 2025

53 min

In this episode, I interview Ash about what it's like being married to an avoider. We talk about the challenges of adjusting to a love style that is different from your own and the ways we've had to grow in how to relate to one another.
 
Resources mentioned:
How We Love, Expanded Edition: Discover Your Love Style, Enhance Your Marriage
Next episode recommended:
Ep 25 - How We Love & Argue, The Vacillator, How it affects our relationship
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore .
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

Feb 10, 2025

50 min

In this episode we do another hot take with Ashley on a question prompt I gave her regarding the duties of parents in a family. Our discussion moves in several different directions talking about what we think and how we would want to approach leading our family.
 
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore .
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

Feb 3, 2025

44 min

We revisit my previous statement about how the Great Commission may not be for everyone. I clarify that statement in this episode saying that while cross cultural evangelism may not be, the call for all believers is to make disciples. 
Episode mentioned:
Ep 108 - Fear of Failure Driving the Holy Search for God's Will in Your Life, On Considering Obedience to God and Serving the Local Body
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore .
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

Jan 27, 2025

41 min

I put Ashley on the hot seat by getting into this conversation without warning or context. I like to get her first drafts on things and so in this conversation we talk about how she has felt she's changed in being able to identify her needs. The conversation morphs into talking about whether or not she thinks she's a people pleaser and how she's let me be the father to our children as we raise them.
Resources mentioned:
Book on Love Styles: How We Love, Expanded Edition: Discover Your Love Style, Enhance Your Marriage
 
Next episode recommended: Ep 25 - How We Love & Argue, The Vacillator, How it affects our relationship
 
Table Talks with the Tares: conversations that inspire personal growth in leadership in every sphere of life.
 
Visit our website: The Honest Underscore .
Join our monthly newsletter for a curated blend of exclusive leadership insights, personal reflections, and resource releases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter!
For questions, please email us at hello@honestunderscore.com.

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