FamilyLife Blended® Podcast

Guidance and hope for blending families can be found in stories from scripture. Ron Deal talks with Laura Petherbridge about her latest book, Stepfamilies of the Bible: Timeless Wisdom for Blended Families. Through true stories of God's heroes from stepfamilies of biblical times, Petherbridge offers practical tools to build unity, overcome complexity, foster love, and create lasting relationships...

Divorce and the death of a spouse naturally bring grief. But we don't always recognize the grief our kids also carry after walking through hard circumstances. Ron Deal talks with Stanley & Mryna Brown on how they navigated grief when they married. Stanley had lost his first wife to cancer, later remarried briefly, then divorced. Myrna had also been through a divorce and was a single mom for te...

Every blended family navigates common stages on their way to finding familyness. It's not uncommon to experience the questioning stage, where you begin to doubt if you've made the right decision about your newly blended family, and you take a detour or two as you navigate your circumstances. Or perhaps you get stuck along the way as you walk through a crisis together. And what about the rewards st...

Good co-parenting with a former spouse helps kids navigate life in two homes with greater ease. Ron Deal's conversation with Jay and Tammy Daughtry teaches us how to be parental partners, not angry associates, as we compartmentalize the pain from divorce and manage co-parenting through a businesslike relationship. They emphasized the importance of congenial handoffs during the parental exchange, b...

Dr. John Townsend defines four essential character traits that individuals need to navigate life's challenges and demands. He shares with Ron Deal that these components are required for stronger relationships. We can help our children and stepchildren develop them and be resilient kids. 1) Attachment: the ability to trust and be vulnerable with others 2) Separation: the ability to have your own vo...

The stepmom-stepdaughter relationship often includes competing loyalties and confusing dynamics and can be the hardest relationship to navigate when blending a family. Ron Deal talks with stepmom Jessica Pickens and her bonus daughter, Jayla, about their ongoing struggles, cutting through tension, which began early and continued for years, and how they finally built a loving, trusting relationship...

Tim and Olivia Smith brought six kids into their blended family in 1997. In their conversation with Ron Deal, they share the joys and challenges of melding together two families, how to encourage relationship building between siblings, and how stepparents can move from a place of isolation to a place of belonging in a stepfamily. Tim’s daughter, Christie, joins the conversation with her pers...

Robert and Jennie Lord both grew up in blended families. They share their stories with Ron Deal about the residue left behind from the maze of parental divorce, multiple stepparents, challenges in relationship building, unwanted transitions, and ongoing instability. They’ve sought healing from those experiences and now want to share what they’ve learned with others. Married with a fami...

Jennifer Maggio shares her story with Ron Deal of her challenges as a single mom that propelled her to begin a national ministry, serving over 1,000,000 single moms. Now married in a blended family, she continues the mission that no single mom walk alone. Show Notes and Resources You can still register for Blended & Blessed!   Learn more about Jennifer Maggio and her ministry.   Get...

What do you do with feelings like anger, jealousy, hurt, or rejection in your blended family? Listen to Ron Deal’s conversation with Dr. Alison Cook, who offers a three-step process to work through hard feelings and find healing and hope for your journey. Show Notes and Resources Register for Blended & Blessed   Look for blended ministries and events in your area.   Learn about...

Parenting a prodigal creates pain and helplessness as we seek to navigate difficult relationships. Listen to Ron Deal’s conversation with Judy Douglass, a prodigal parent, on how to tenderly manage these tenuous relationships while staying calm, present, and patient in rebuilding a relationship on their terms. Douglass and Deal discuss the Prodigal Son story in Luke and the parallels with ou...

Cheryl Shumake wants to reach brown & black blended families with brown & black voices. She & Clifton Howard talk with Ron Deal about her new ministry, Sawubona, which means “I see you” & its goal to break through the barriers with culture-informed spaces Show Notes and Resources Watch Blended & Blessed from anywhere in the world!   Join us on the 2026 Love Lik...

What does the apostle Paul mean in Philippians 2:4 when he says, “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others?” How do we apply that to marriage, and to relationships in a blended family? In this podcast episode, Ron Deal talks with Brian Goins, author of Playing Hurt, A Guy’s Strategy for a Winning Marriage, about taking care of o...

Do you think your marriage could improve if your spouse were different? Is it easier to look at their faults instead of considering your own? In this podcast episode, Ron Deal talks with co-authors of his new book, The Mindful Marriage: Create Your Best Relationship Through Understanding and Managing Yourself. Terry and Sharon Hargraves and Nan Deal share how the book can help couples understand t...

Luke Landwer was young when his parents divorced, and he enjoyed time with just his mom for many years. When she remarried to a man with six kids, the adjustments for Luke were many. At just 11 years old, his conversation with Ron Deal is insightful as he articulates how adjusting to new rules, a new house, new people, was a challenge. He yearns for more time with his dad, but distance prevents it...

Living in a blended family as a young adult can bring challenges and blessings. For Amelia Dellaripa, it brings many more blessings. In this podcast episode, Ron Deal talks with Amelia about her blended family of seven and how they developed love and acceptance for one another over time. Amelia talks about how there was seldom any divisiveness or difficult interactions with her stepmom or stepbrot...

What’s it like to be a teenager in a blended family? How do you manage the confusing emotions of your childhood and teenage years while also adjusting to new family dynamics? Davis and Campbell Faulkner lost their dad in a traffic accident when they were very young. Their mom remarried and they’ve navigated feelings of loss, fear, anxiety, grief, abandonment, and more as they’ve adjusted to a new...

Gratitude doesn’t always happen naturally in blended families, but it is worth pursuing and can move us toward unity in relationships. As we take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), consider our perspective about the circumstances we find ourselves in, and allow ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2), we posture ourselves toward an obedient heart that discov...

Foster care and adoption present difficult dynamics with issues similar to blended families. How do you help a child cope with ambiguous loss or connect as a parent when children act out from prior wounds? The loss that results from separation from a first family carries deep wounds that manifest themselves in misbehavior. Many children can’t verbalize their hurts, and families don’t have access t...

Laura Husband, daughter of Columbia astronaut Rick Husband, was 12 years old when she endured her dad’s very public death. Laura shares with Ron Deal the layers of grief that followed with the lingering effects and expectations after an astronaut dies. When her mom began dating three years later, she felt abandoned and without a voice to the changes in her life. Her mom later remarried and Laura b...

How do you identify narcissism or cope with a narcissist? Ron Deal talks with counselor Laurel Slade-Waggoner about strategies in a relationship when someone seeks to control, manipulate, shift blame, gaslight, or behave in other narcissistic ways. Show Notes and Resources Check out Laurel's website and available books.   Laurel's Podcast   Join us for the Summit on Stepfamily Ministry!   Ron's co...

Does your family have a designated Sabbath? How do you spend that day? Author Kathi Lipp shares with Ron Deal her suggestions for reimagining Christian Sabbath that is a meaningful day with the Lord and one another as you prioritize rest and share a meal together. On Sabbath, we want to focus on who God is and His provision for us as we rest and connect with one another. Lipp suggests that food pr...

The intersection of marriage and parenting often creates tension for stepcouples that leads to disagreements and, as a result, slows down relationship building. Listen to Ron Deal and Gayla Grace give valuable input on how to become a parenting team and strengthen your marriage in the process as you cope with common stepfamily dynamics such as: different parenting styles, co-parenting struggles, r...

As a blended family couple, it’s not uncommon to experience sexual pitfalls that bring additional stress to your relationship. How do you prevent physical intimacy issues and work through those that have shown up? In this episode, Ron Deal and Gayla Grace talk about how to build trust and emotional safety to overcome common pitfalls such as: the comparison trap, fear and insecurity from "ghosts" o...

The dynamics of blended family life can bring hopelessness, and we lose the ability to see a future where God can make our situation better. But there’s always hope for a brighter tomorrow. In this episode, Ron Deal speaks with Dr. Lee Warren, a neurosurgeon who has experienced personal trauma and loss, and explains the difference between our mind and our brain and how to use our mind to face hard...