FamilyLife Today®

You can love God, serve people, hit your goals—and still feel strangely empty at home. So what gives? Why does “successful” sometimes feel like “running on fumes”? Stephanie Carter and her husband Bryan, author of Made to Last: 8 Principles to Build Long-Lasting Relationships, get blunt about burnout, counseling at 37, and the wake-up call that reshaped their marriage...

You’re checking the boxes—career, church, kids—but something still feels off. Why doesn’t success feel significant? And why does marriage take the hit when life gets busy? Stephanie Carter and her husband Bryan, author of Made to Last: 8 Principles to Build Long-Lasting Relationships, share how burnout, counseling, and hard recalibration reshaped their marriage and family r...

You love Jesus—but marriage still feels complicated. Ministry pressure. In-law tension. Career moves you didn’t plan. What does a strong Christian marriage actually look like after 25 years? If you're wondering How can I make a relationship last? Stephanie Carter and her husband Bryan--author of Made to Last: 8 Principles to Build Long Lasting Relationships--get you started in the righ...

Dennis and Barbara Rainey know marriage is hard, messy, and tested daily. On FamilyLife Today, they share marriage lessons from decades of insight—faith-based, practical, and no sugarcoating—to survive the everyday mess. Show Notes and Resources Set sail on the Love Like You Mean It Marriage Cruise! Now through 3/31/26, use promo code CruiseMadness27 and enjoy exclusive savings on your...

Your world can flip in an instant. One call, one loss, and suddenly your marriage, your faith, your family—all feel torn-open and unsteady. On Family Life Today, Chris Brooks and Yodit Brooks share honestly what it’s like to walk through the dark night of the soul...in marriage. They extend the quiet hope that arrives when you refuse to just survive. Show Notes and Resources Set sail o...

When it comes to setting goals in marriage, most couples wing it—or copy whatever sounds spiritual. FamilyLife President Luke Middendorf talks about upheaval, faith, and the quiet drift that happens when you’re busy but not aligned. If you want more than vague marriage resolutions, this conversation will steady your aim without piling on guilt. Show Notes and Resources Set sail on the...

You said it nicely. Then louder. Now you’re just tired. This live panel of marriage experts from FamilyLife's Love Like You Mean It Cruise gets real about resentment in marriage, like small frustrations that turn into silent scorekeeping. Why he withdraws. Why you push. And how couples stop fighting each other and start fighting for each other—without pretending everything’s fine...

You’re busy. Faithful. Grinding. But if you’re honest? Something at home feels off. Music artists and authors Montell and Kristin Jordan get real about success, sickness, marriage strain—and the quiet drift that almost costs you what matters most. If work, church, kids, or “good things” are crowding your covenant, this conversation will recalibrate you without shaming...

What does God’s love look like when your earthly father failed you? He Calls Me Daughter, a new Christian movie by Rick Altizer, follows real stories of father wounds, faith, and redemption. Rachelle Starr’s Scarlet Hope ministry brings hope to women in strip clubs, showing how obedience, prayer, and God’s grace transform broken lives. Watch, reflect, and discover how healing fro...

How does a missing, distant, or imperfect dad shape a life? In the movie He Calls Me Daughter, director Rick Altizer and Rachelle Starr explore father wounds and their ripple effect on faith, identity, and trust. Through Scarlet Hope’s bold ministry in the sex industry, real stories of redemption, obedience, and God’s transformative love reveal how compassionate faith can heal deep hur...

If your father’s absence, distance, or flaws left a mark, it can echo in your trust, faith, and sense of worth. In He Calls Me Daughter, Rick Altizer explores father wounds and the gospel hope of a perfect Heavenly Father. Through transparent stories, Christ-centered healing, and practical insights, this film offers women—and men—a path to freedom, identity, and relational restor...

When grief, hidden pain, and addiction collide, even strong marriages can crack. Ron and Nan Deal share their searing journey through loss, an alcoholic spouse, and buried marriage secrets that nearly destroyed them. From Nan’s yoga-mat surrender to God’s radical grace, they reveal how confession, trust-building, and God’s mercy restored hope, intimacy, and passion after decades...

Ron and Nan Deal share the raw story behind a marriage almost destroyed: pride, grief, abandonment, and the death of their son. Nan’s struggle with addiction spiraled for over a decade, while Ron wrestled with guilt, ministry pressures, and heartbreak. This isn’t a polished story—it’s real, messy, and full of hope for couples facing hidden hurts, broken patterns, addiction...

What if all the grades, trophies, and accolades your kids chase aren’t enough to make them feel secure? On the final day of the heart-centered parenting series, Start with the Heart author Dr. Kathy Koch shows parents how to root identity in God, affirm kids’ unique gifts, and nurture purpose-driven competence. Through practical examples—dice games, car rides, and coffee-making f...

Your kid rolls their eyes before you finish a sentence. Screens compete with your voice. Homework feels like a performance review. Dr. Kathy Koch shows how to get past the noise and actually connect. Learn simple, practical ways to be seen as more than a nag, to help your kids feel known, loved, and brave, and to raise relationally strong kids who can thrive—inside and outside the digital wo...

Middle schoolers who grunt. Teens glued to screens. You love your kid—but do they feel liked? On Family Life Today, Kathy Koch sits down with Dave Wilson and Ann Wilson to expose performance-driven parenting and show a better way. If you’re tired of comparing, correcting, and panicking about faith, tech, or rebellion—this conversation meets you in the mess and points you toward y...

On what should have been his son’s wedding day, Tim & Challies stood at a graveside and read the wedding speech he never got to give. Months earlier, 20-year-old Nick had collapsed and died without warning. If God is good, why is the future we imagine buried? When the life we plan is gone and peace feels like a promise meant for someone else, is faith strong enough for the life we'd neve...

On a peaceful fall day, Tim & Aileen Challies' son, a seminary student engaged to be married, suddenly collapsed during a pickup game on campus. He would never come home. In this candid conversation, Tim & Aileen share what followed: shock, isolation, a marriage grieving in different languages, and the search for God in the silence. When the unthinkable happens, you may find yourself askin...

Loss lingers in blended families—resurfacing during weddings, graduations, birthdays—stirring developmental grief no one sees. Couples grieve unevenly, risking distance; church often silences sorrow instead of shepherding it. If you're overwhelmed by grief, exhausted by "move on" pressure, and craving space for honest pain, listen in. Ron and Nan Deal unpack why lament is biblical, not...

You’ve heard “What does this verse mean to you?” and felt uneasy, or watched Scripture twisted in ways that hurt. Busy life buries Bible study; guilt piles up over adult kids who’ve walked away. If you’re intimidated by “correct” interpretation or weary of shallow approaches, this episode delivers clarity. YouTube "Bible Nerd" Faith Womack equips everyday...

You've feel like a failure for not studying enough--or you've even been hurt by twisted Scripture. In family chaos, the Bible gathers dust while guilt builds. If you're hungry for truth without the baggage, tune in. Faith Womack, YouTube's Bible Nerd, shares her rough, raw origins—from spiritual abuse and miscarriage to building a ministry—and reframes Bible engagement as joyful, every...

Fear. Worry. Pain: They can feel all-consuming. Author and speaker Amberley Neese believes that in the questions Jesus asks in the Gospels, there are answers big enough for all three--and a highway to stronger faith. Show Notes and Resources Untangling Faith: Reclaiming Hope in the Questions Jesus Asked Participant Workbook by Amberly Neese. Begin the Easter story early with Resurrection Eggs . St...

What if your doubts made your faith stronger? Author, speaker, and humorist Amberly Neese explores Jesus questions--ones He Himself asked--as a way to reclaim your trust all over again. Show Notes and Resources Untangling Faith: Reclaiming Hope in the Questions Jesus Asked Participant Workbook by Amberly Neese. Begin the Easter story early with Resurrection Eggs . Start your family tradition now!&...

If only they knew. You’ve been burned by church—gossip, hypocrisy, wounds that make isolation feel way safer than community. Meanwhile, parenting teens feels impossible: anxiety, porn, loneliness, and digital overload threaten to derail their faith. Turns out self-sufficiency sounds empowering but crumbles under real pressure. If you’re tempted to quit on people or give up on the...

If they really knew me, would they still love me? That fear of vulnerability fuels loneliness, curated online masks, people-pleasing, and walls that block deep friendships, marital closeness, or authenticity in ministry. And suffering eventually deepens that fear instead of healing it. If you're weary of performing, tired of fake friendships, and craving courage for real connection, listen in. She...