Jim Daly

Dr. Juli Slattery never anticipated that her marriage would suffer from sexual issues. She grew up in a loving Christian home, became a Christian as a young child, attended Christian schools, and became a psychologist with deep spiritual values. Despite all of her biblical and therapeutic training, however, she and her husband still encountered sexual challenges.

She isn’t alone. Many couples who contact Focus on the Family feel ill-equipped to navigate sexuality from a biblical perspective or to pass along those values to their children.

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I’ve always enjoyed being a dad to my sons, Trent and Troy. They’re grown now, but since they were babies, I’ve been intentional about spending quality time with them and regularly saying, “I love you.”

Every parent wants to give their child quality attention, but life always seems so busy, doesn’t it? We’re pulled in many directions and don’t always express love to our children as often as we should or in ways that resonate with them.

Matt and Lisa Jacobson know all about intentional parenting. They have eight children — four boys and four girls, ranging in age from 31 to 19, with a few grandkids sprinkled in.

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Forty-two years into their marriage, Dr. Robertson McQuilkin and his wife, Muriel, were thriving together. Then, Muriel began forgetting things. She lost her keys. She repeated a story she’d told a few minutes before. Thus, began a harrowing — yet, powerful — story of love that endures even the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. McQuilkin served for 22 years as President of Columbia International University before leaving his position to care for his wife, Muriel, for over a decade. Theirs is a story of amazing loyalty and devotion.

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Tim and Kathy Bush say they didn’t understand what love was really all about when they first got married. Both sought happiness, not in each other, but in drinking, drugs, affairs, career accomplishments, and monetary success. Their focus was on other things and people instead of their marriage. Both cheated on each other multiple times.

But then Kathy and Tim got saved and committed to change their relationship to reflect God’s plan for them. They became intentional about how they lived.

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Dino Petrone is a senior software engineer. He’s logical and analytical. His wife Ashley is creative. She’s a stay-at-home mom who runs a social media business called Arrows and Bow, which incorporates home design tips and her family’s spiritual journey.

Their differences drew them together, then pushed them apart, then drew them back together again.

When Dino and Ashley began dating, they spent every minute that they were together talking and laughing. They messaged each other constantly when they were apart. 

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One of the most important character traits we can model for our children is resilience — the ability to overcome adversity.

As the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Paul is telling us that we can endure difficult circumstances and come out the other side with greater faith. Resilience is what transforms a challenge into an opportunity and a weakness into a strength. 

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It takes two healthy spouses to make a satisfying relationship — but just one unhealthy spouse to weaken it.

That can cause trouble for people who don’t self-evaluate, who assume everything’s going well unless their spouse tells them otherwise. A better approach is to take accountability for the good of our marriage by attending to how we act and speak to our spouse. Each of us has both flaws and virtues, and it is our personal responsibility to improve ourselves for the overall health of our marriage.

Author, speaker, and licensed marriage and family therapist Dr. 

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