Welcome Focus on the Family Listeners!

Today is Day 2 of our two-day Focus on the Family No More Perfect Marriages interviews.  You can listen to Day 1 here.   If you’re a Focus on the Family listener who has dropped by for the first time…welcome! We’d love to meet you…please take a...

Join NO MORE PERFECT DATE NIGHT!

Join the No More Perfect Date Night Community today! Find out more info at www.NoMorePerfectDateNight.com! Spring Registration is closed but we’re opening it just for Family Life, Heidi St. John podcast, and Focus on the Family listeners until Friday, May 19,...

Margin For Marriage

Jill: I’m most impatient when I’m overscheduled. Mark: I tend to take things personally when I am tired. Jill: My tone of voice has exasperation in it most often when I’m running late. Mark: I lack the ability to listen well when I’m trying to do too much. Jill: Just...

Two Ways To Make Money Without Working At It

Several years ago Mark and I wrote Living With Less So Your Family Has More. The book is about living with less stress, less activities, and less money than what is culturally acceptable.  It’s actually about standing up to adult peer pressure and doing what is...

Listen To Hear

Mark: Jill was telling me about something that we needed to do this weekend. I was busy answering an email on my phone and I absentmindedly said a few “Uh huh’s” to feign interest in what she was saying. When she said, “Mark, did you hear me?” I had to admit that I...

Conviction or Condemnation?

Jill: Last weekend at the Hearts at Home conference, I spent some time with a woman whose marriage was at seven years of healing from her infidelity. There is still so much pain in their marriage, though, and it seems they are stuck.  The more we talked the more I...

Lose Those Expectations

Last week we opened up our new No More Perfect Date Night Community and then we spent this past weekend with about 2700 women at the Illinois Hearts at Home conference. It was a full week and a great weekend but it will take us both about a week to recover!...

Be a hero or Follow The Hero?

Today’s post is from my friend Patty Maier who was one of four writers who wrote the Hearts at Home Pantagraph newspaper column for many years. She and her family live in Forrest, Illinois where many different organizations benefit from her time and talents. By...

Understanding, Kindness, and Grace

Mark: Jill and I spent a few days in Colorado Springs this past week interviewing with Focus On the Family, spending time with friends, and, of course, spending time in the mountains. One couple we spent time with have been married 36 years and they shared they had...

Jesus Understands

Worn out? Jesus was so tired that he slept in a boat even though a storm tossed it about. Up at night with a little one? The disciples, who were in the boat with him, were so afraid of the storm they woke Jesus up! Feeling misunderstood? Even Jesus’ friend...