Caller Questions & Discussion:

1. According to blended family expert Ron Deal, despite good intentions, most couples who bring children from previous relationships into marriage are not prepared to deal with them. The smarter you are, the better your family will be.
2. I discovered my husband has been making a lot of phone calls to a female classmate from high school. To what extent should I insist on full disclosure?
3. I’m a single mom to two teens and have been divorced for 2 years; how do I help them adjust to me dating again?
4. I’m remarried, my husband’s adult son is in a wheelchair, and my husband and I don’t get to spend much time together. What is my role? What should I do?

Caller Questions & Discussion:

1. I’ve been married for 53 years and we are both from alcoholic families. There’s no spiritual and emotional intimacy, and it has been hard for me to let him be physically intimate.
2. My husband admitted to me that he’s taken a woman out twice and thinks that polygamy is in the Bible and he can have multiple wives. What can I do?
3. Dr. John Townsend discusses the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling that he helps to lead at Concordia University.
4. My adult son and I share a car; how do I approach him about paying for his fender bender damage?
5. How did I get a phobia of getting sick, which is called hypochondriasis? How do I get over it?
6. My 80-year-old husband fell and broke his hip; how do I place him into a board and care? My daughter and her husband are worried about their inheritance because I’m paying for it.
7. My daughter is divorced because she found the person she wants to be with. She’s now living with him away from her five children in another state and says it’s God’s will. We’ve stepped in to help her ex-husband and children; how do I talk to my daughter?

Caller Questions & Discussion:

1. Our good friend Dr. John Townsend talks about his band with his sons, and the Institute he founded, Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling, at Concordia University.
2. How do I continue to flourish in my job with a bipolar coworker who is aligned with our boss? It’s not a safe environment.
3. I’m retired and do all the things around the house for my wife, but I love spending time alone. Am I on the autism spectrum if I don’t need people outside of my relationship with Christ?
4. I’m a 65-year-old divorce attorney. How do I refresh myself if my work is going great but my daughter is going through a contentious divorce and my grandson wrote a suicide note?
5. I’ve been in foster care, institutionalized, and in jail. I just found out that the pastor I’ve been following will be leaving my church, and I’m hurt.
6. I’m recently retired and doing everything right, but I’m sad, lonely, and depressed since I started a confusing romantic relationship a year ago.

Caller Questions & Discussion:

1. Dr. Sheri shares insights from her chapter in the book The Healing Church, where she explores the impact of sex addiction on the betrayed partner.
2. Can Jesus lie? I feel like Jesus is speaking to me about things like not wearing earrings.
3. I’m in recovery and have been a substance abuse counselor for a decade, but I still feel shame. How can I find balance when I feel like I’m an imposter?
4. Did I do the right thing by protecting my mother from a will that was ill-conceived? My father was very sick when he gave his sister and me everything in his will, but it says he wasn’t married when he was.
5. Last Wednesday, we had a blow-up with our 15-year-old foster daughter. Then she made false accusations against us. What do I do?

Caller Questions & Discussion:

1. Chris shares how he has been working on his identity in Christ and journaling about how strong roots produce spiritual fruits. Even though it’s easy to get caught up in the outcome, Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19 reminds us to focus on deepening our roots in Christ.
2. Are there any Christian spiritual resources my friend can use after her home was in a house fire? She’s going to have to live in a hotel for months.
3. I was in a car accident 20 years ago when I was drinking, and the friend who was with me died. I’m struggling with survivor’s guilt, why God kept me alive, and whether I should stay in the relationship with the woman I’m dating.
4. My husband was unfaithful for the first 25 years of our marriage. I recently confronted him about going to a birthday party for a family member connected to one of the women he had an affair with, and I feel triggered and violated again.
5. I get anxious when I’m around my adult kids, and I had similar feelings around my mother. What can I do about this family-related anxiety?

Caller Questions & Discussion:

1. Dr. Alice shares an experience with her son over the weekend that reminded her that boundaries don’t change the perpetrator, but they empower the person setting them. The way to establish healthy boundaries is to identify what you will not tolerate.
2. My best friend’s son remarried, and his new wife has influenced him to leave Christianity and become a Jehovah’s Witness. What can I do to help her?
3. I struggle with anxiety and feelings of not being good enough, especially when I start a new job, because my father’s critical voice is still in my head. How do I move beyond this?
4. My wife of over 40 years has given me notice of legal separation and refuses to talk to me because I become angry at her, which reminds her of her father. How can I reverse this?

Caller Questions & Discussion:

1. Dr. Jill discusses character development using habit stacking: identifying a habit you already do and adding another habit to it.
2. I’m 32 and feel very insecure because I’m single, have no kids, and everyone around me is married with children.
3. How do I stop being addicted to creativity? I have bipolar I, have been to the psych ward four times, and feel withdrawal when I don’t do art.
4. How do I set boundaries with my husband of 10 years? He uses alcohol, watches porn, and won’t talk through conflicts with me.
5. I’ve been divorced for 5 years and have been dating a woman exclusively for 2 months, but her actions don’t match her words. What should I do?

Caller Questions & Discussion:

1. JJ shares how to break free from old habits, behaviors, and identity patterns that keep you stuck.
2. It has been hard for me to find housing because of incorrect items reported on my credit report. I’ve gone through my savings and am now living in a shelter. If God can do all things, what will it take for me to move forward?
3. If someone is viewing and downloading child pornography online, how could that person receive counseling? Would telling a therapist automatically be reported to authorities and likely result in arrest?
4. Brian asks the hosts if Philippians 2:12 says to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, what is needed to work out a marriage?