Focus on the Family Broadcast

Opening:

Excerpt:

John Stonestreet:There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, if you want to know what water is, don’t ask the fish. The reason you don’t ask the fish is that the fish don’t know they’re wet. And culture is to us, as water is to fish. We swim in it and so on andthis pressure from the culture around us shapes and impacts and molds and nudges our belief about God.

End of Excerpt

John Fuller: So, our culture can seem like a scary thing to a lot of us as parents. And there are some strong undercurrents that do threaten our children, but we can be oblivious about the danger, or we can be overprotective. And there really is a balance to be found here. And we’ll be addressing that, not only the balance for how to respond, but how to prepare your child to change the culture for good. This is Focus on the Family. I’m John Fuller, and your host is Focus president and author Jim Daly.

Jim Daly: John, this is one of the biggest topics of interest to our Focus listeners, and that is equipping our kids for what’s ahead as they leave home and go to college or start out on their new vocation, whatever it might be. John Stonestreet not only is a good friend of mine, but he’s written an excellent book with Brett Kunkle to help us train our kids in a Christian world view. And I’m telling you, it is a fantastic book, I think one of the best resources for parents, uh, to equip you for how to teach your children about the culture. And the title is,A Practical Guide To Culture: Helping The Next Generation Navigate Today’s World.And I hope you’ll get a copy of it, and we’ll have details on how to do that in a moment. Uh, John and his wife, Sarah, have four children, three girls and a new baby boy, under one. So congratulations, John, and welcome.

Body:

John S.: Well, thank you. It’s, uh – it’s been an interesting year, adding that little boy to our household. And – but it’s always great to be here with you guys on Focus. Thanks.

Jim: That is wonderful. So how’s – you getting sleep? (Laughter)

John S.: I’m getting sleep.

Jim: What about your wife? (Laughter)

John S.: She’s – well, I married way over my head, so she’s fantastic. And, uh, I tell you what – I tell people all the time – if you’re going to bring a newborn into your house, find a 12-year-old girl first, because my…

Jim: Isn’t that wonderful, to have three daughters?

John S.: Oh, my oldest daughter – oh, unbelievable. It’s like having – he, poor kid, has four moms. But it’s, uh – may never learn to walk. He’s just going to get passed around. But he’s…

Jim: Might need some counseling.

John S.: That’s right. Maybe a little bit. (Laughter)

Jim: (Laughter) That’s all right. Hey, John, we do throw this word culture around a lot. But what is a good definition of culture, and how do we often mischaracterize it?

John S.: Well, you know, we wrote this book, Jim, because, um, I think a lot of parents really sense that culture, uh, had changed. I mean, and that – that’s the thing about culture. It’s like the water is to fish, culture is to humans. And so we don’t really notice it. It’s just kind of whatever seems normal in our world. So there’s a couple ways to define culture. One is kind of what humans make of the world. So you know, if you leave this country and go to the Dominican Republic or go to a different country, you – it kind of is like going to a different world. And, you know, that’s because of the product of human activity.

But the practical side of this for parents is – it’s just way more than kind of the theoretical, here’s thedefinition of culture. It’s just the way the world impacts our hearts and minds.Um, culture’s really powerful in what it portrays to be normal. And when you see these kind of big cultural shifts, like we’ve had over the last couple decades, parents really, I think, panic. And that’s really why we wrote the book is, both Brett and I, who speak to a lot of students and a lot of parents every year, just felt like a lot of parents were asking, what’s happened? And how can I prepare my kids to live in this world?There’s challenges that are unique to this moment that 30, 40 years ago, it was different challenges, and 30 years from now it’ll be different challenges, as well.

Jim: Right. And for the Christian parent, it’s that wisdom to teach in the right way.

John S.: Absolutely.

Jim: And sometimes just hiding under a bushel is not the right way. They need to be informed about what’s being talked about, what’s being expressed. So many Christian families, we shelter, and then we let them go off to college or their first job at 18, 19, whatever it might be, and that can be ashocking thing for an 18, 19-year-old who hasn’t, uh, you know, seen it or tasted it.

John S.: No, that’s right. And I – I think it’s just kind of a misnomer that we can ultimately withdraw or hide from culture. I mean, you can’t. And we learned this early as parents. Uh, Jim, I remember my daughters were probably, like, five and three and one. I was, uh, cooking pancakes one morning, a Saturday morning. Uh, and…

Jim: You do that too?

John S.: I do. I flip pancakes. Yeah, it’s about…

Jim: That’s what I do, too.

John S.: I do that and grill. That’s about it. But my wife put on a praise CD. And it was, uh,Bless The Lord,O My Soul,10,000 Reasons, right? And my middle daughter, Anna, who – she’s my kid who thinks out loud, right? – she just pipes up out of nowhere, “Hey, Daddy, is that Justin Bieber?” I was like, what the…

(LAUGHTER)

John S.: Where did you even hear that name, you know?

Jim: (Laughter) Right.

John S.: Uh, so – and she…

Jim: So she already knew.

John S.: Well, somehow she’d heard the name. And it’s just interesting. You know, we’re conservative parents, right? We keep a lot of, uh, you know, popular sorts of media and film and entertainment, you know, away from our kids, just for – but to think that somehow we can shelter them and keep culture out, it’s just actually not possible. But I’d also say this, Jim. And that is, for Christians, it’s not the right thing to do. There are escapist religions where the point of those religions is to hide from the world and escape or to enter a place of mental escape, like Buddhism or Hinduism. But Christianity’s centered around the God who became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jim: Engagement.

John S.: Right. I mean, the trajectory of the Christian story is God walking us through this world, not just, uh, us trying to get out of this world.

Jim: Well, and I love that, because that’s the theme here at Focus. we want to engage people who are struggling in their marriages and in their family dynamics to help equip them to do better. That should be our calling as Christians. Uh, you know, Paul was so great at that. He engaged the culture there at Mars Hill, or wherever he was. He – he gave an explanation for the faith that was within him, and he would challenge the local people to think differently. John, one of the things in your great book,A Practical Guide To Culture,you draw out this idea of living in a storyless culture. I like that, because so many young people today I think are saying, isn’t there more to this? Is this all we get out of life, is materialism and, you know, fight to get to the top of the ladder? Is that it, really? And you raise that point, well. Explain it, the story-less culture.

John S.: Well, it’s just that we live in a culture that doesn’t have a common story. We don’t think we live in the same sort of world as our neighbor thinks we – we live in. I mean, you can stop average people on the street and ask those kind of big questions about what is true, and what is good, and – and what’s life all about, and get answers that are really all over the map. And ultimately, where that leads us, and one of the things we spend a lot of time talking about in the book, is the concept of identity. If there is a challenge, a cultural challenge, for this generation, being raised in this cultural moment, it’s the loss of identity. Who are we? And yet, we’re a culture that talks all about identity, whether it’s sexual identity, racial identity, uh, socioeconomic identity, or whatever, but this identity is outside of any sort of coherent story. This is what’s so great about being a Christian. I mean, there’s a lot of great things about being Christian, right?

But one of the great things is is that what we get in the pages of Scripture is The Story, capital T, capital S, right? The grand story of life in the world. And so, we don’t have to stand in the moment and try to find a story. We can enter the story, uh, from the Scripture and make sense of our moment. And being able to keep those two things straight, uh, will keep us, I think, from either panic, uh, as parents, uh, you know, that somehow the world’s out of control, that maybe, you know, history’s outside of – no. I mean, no Supreme Court decision, or cultural new thing is going to change, you know, end of the story. Uh, but it’s also going to keep us from just capitulating to the cultural story, because there are lies happening. One of the things we do in the book is, we do talk about what we call, uh, eight big cultural waves. You know, so if you’ve ever been at the ocean and you get hit by a wave, you know it. You felt it, right?

Jim: And they come in sets of bigger waves.

John S.: And they come in sets. Yeah, that’s right, one after another. And – but you know those. And we have some of those waves that I think have swept over families over the last, you know, couple years, uh, maybe couple decades. But there’s also been that experience you probably had, Jim, of being in the water and just kind of playing around, not noticing – all of sudden, you look up, and you’re 30 yards down the beach, right? How did that happen?

Jim: You move.

John S.: That’s right. And we – there’s also, I think, a need for us to understand the undercurrents that are taking place in our culture. We identify four that are dramatically shaping what it is to, um – uh, to be a teenager and to grow up as a student in this particular culture. Uh, these are things that you don’t even notice, because they just seem so normal. They just seem so…

Jim: And they’re below the surface.

John S.: And they’re really below the surface.

Jim: That’s what an undercurrent is.

John S.: Right.

Jim: What are they?

John S.: Well, you know, one of them is just living in a culture with so much information, right? I mean, we have moved – right? – from, uh, an agricultural society to an industrial society, and now, from an industrial society to an information society.

Jim: Let’s help the listeners, because, uh, in the book – and I’ve pulled this out – uh, when you look at the influence of technology and entertainment, these were the data points, which I think will help the listener better understand this. You said in the book, each day, 500 million tweets are sent. Four million hours of content are uploaded to YouTube – four million hours!

John S.: What are people doing with their lives? (Laughter)

John F.: (Laughter) Lot of cat videos too.

Jim: I mean, this is crazy 4.3 billion Facebook messages are posted. This is every day, everybody. Six billion Google searches are conducted each day, and over 205 billion emails are sent each day. There’s only, what, seven, eight billion people on the Earth. I mean, we’re together sending 205 billion emails every day? That’s staggering.

John S.: It’s a staggering, staggering number. And so what does that mean in terms of our experience living in this culture? Well, one is a student who lives today will encounter more information…

Jim: Yeah, overwhelmingly.

John S.: …today than a student who lived 500 years ago would have seen in their entire life. And like you said, there’s nothing new under the sun, so – but it’s the fact that all of this information and all the ideas that are part of this information are just kind of, uh, sweeping over us day in and day out, day in and day out.Now, here’s what Christian parents often think. Well, in all of this information, some of which is true, some of which isnottrue, we need to give our kids the truth. Well, yeah, you do need to give your kids the truth, but that’s not enough. Because if we just dump true information into that sea of information that you just described, it’s like a drop in the ocean. It’s just going to get lost.

Jim: Well, now, you’re making – I mean, from a parent’s perspective, I’m sounding overwhelmed.

John S.: It’s completely overwhelming.

Jim: So when you…

John S.: Here’s what’s fun about it, though. Paul prayed for the church at Philippi that their love would abound more and more in truth and in all discernment. So, what happens when we communicate information has to be different. And that’s that word, discernment. We call that the antidote in the age of information, is discernment. And discernment is – is helping the kids parse information. And there’s a couple practical ways that we suggest in the book to do that. But the easiest way, the – the one that, if we just put it in our back pocket and use it, it is a practical tool – we tell this to educators and parents, I use this in my own family all the time – it’s the power of asking good questions. Right?

Jim: Right.

John S.: We want to give information. But if we have strategic questions – we actually give four or five in the book. I’ll give you just one, just – because I think it’s a really helpful – it might, in fact, maybe be the most helpful, uh, question in developing discernment in the next generation. What do you mean by that?

Jim: Yes.

John S.: In an age of information, ideas are being communicated but rarely argued and rarely defined.

Jim: Because nobody wants to step on you.

John S.: Oh – yeah. I mean, you’ve had this experience. I was on a plane from Colorado Springs to Atlanta a couple years ago. And this woman was sitting next to me. And – and she said, well, what do you do? I said, well, I work for a Christian organization here in town. And she went, huh. I’m an atheist. Prove me wrong, right? So started out a three-hour flight. And it was like, whoa, here we go.

Jim: Great passenger-mate you had there.

John S.: Yeah. There we go. And – but first thing she said was, how can you believe in God? And, uh, you know, I’d been to seminary. I know this, you know, five classical proofs for God’s existence from Thomas Aquinas, and all that. But someone had taught me this question. And so instead, I said, “Well, wait a minute. What do you mean by God?” And she said, “A grumpy old man with a beard in the sky, who can’t wait you to do something wrong so he can strike you with a lightning bolt.” I was like…

Jim: That’s what she said?

John S.: That’s what she said.

Jim: Wow.

John S.: I was like, I’m sorry. I don’t want to defend Zeus, right?

Jim: (Laughter) Right.

John S.: (Laughter) He’s not – he’s not the God that I believe in. But the point was – is, we were using the same vocabulary, but not the same dictionary. And when you talk about, uh, the words that get thrown around in our culture that our kids absorb, words like love and freedom and truth and beauty and good, and male and female, and marriage – and these are words that we use, but rarely define. And that little question, what do you mean by that? – you know, you better believe, when my daughter comes to me and says, “Hey, Daddy, I love that boy,” my first question’s going to be, “Wait a minute, what do you mean by love?” My second one’s going to be, “What do you mean by boy, and where is he?” Because, you know, you’re…

John F.: Where is he, so I can shut you off from that relationship for a long time.

John S.: (Laughter) That’s right. That’s right. Yeah.

Jim: Corner you.

John F.: (Laughter) Well, our guest today on Focus on the Family is John Stonestreet. And we’re talking about his great resource. It’s calledA Practical Guide To Culture: Helping The Next Generation Navigate Today’s World.And we’ve got copies atfocusonthefamily.com/radio,or when you call800, the letter A and the word FAMILY.

Jim: John, let me ask you about the bigger cultural, um, battle. In fact, so many of us talk about regaining the culture, winning the culture back, because so much of what we may have experienced years ago, decades ago, before this undercurrent that you’re talking about, um, happened – and we want to go back to that. Did we ever have control of the culture?

John S.: Well, I mean, I think there are some cultures that are more life-giving than others, right? I mean, there’s no question about it. Um, some…

Jim: More in line with values, et cetera – telling the truth, treating people…

John S.: Right. And I even would say be more humanizing than others, right? I mean, if I can borrow a line from Ravi Zacharias, cultures that love their neighbors are better than cultures that eat their neighbors, right? I mean, it was – so that’s kind of – kind of self-evident. But no, I don’t think we ever did. I think the reason is – is because, ultimately Christ has control of the entire story.But here’s the thing: Christ is risen, Christ is Lord, andChrist has called us to this time and this place. I’ve got to believe that about not only myself, but about my daughters and my new – my newborn son. I tell you what, it’s hard to believe that about my daughters. I wish I could raise my daughters in a culture in which – which they weren’t immediately objectified, um, you know, in a culture that strangely celebrates the life and death of one of the great womanizers in human history two weeks before, you know, the sexual scandals break loose in Hollywood. And trying to hold those two things together—it’s just bizarre. That’s the world that God has placed my daughters in. So, I would choose a different one. But again, do we believe that Christ is risen, Christ is Lord, and Christ is in control of history and has placed us to be salt and light in this moment?

Jim: Which I – I love that narrative, because it’s not a mistake that we’re born in this moment.

John S.: Right.

Jim: God knew that before he formed the universe, I believe. So nothing is happenstance. It’s happening for a reason and for a purpose. John, we’ve got to get practical, as well, for parents. You’ve mentioned four undercurrents, and you can interweave those. We’re not going to be able to cover all that. You’ve talked about technology. But wherever it fits, bring those other three in. And if we don’t cover it, people need to get the resource, right?A Practical Guide To Culture.Um, teaching our children Christian world view, and helping them to discern what’s happening around them, even with what you just mentioned, the sexual scandals. How do we practically talk to our kids about what’s happening? Adults should behave like adults. Why do they not behave like adults, Daddy? Just role play with me.

John S.: No, that’s exactly right, Jim. We – we – and one of things I want to bring up is we actually have to have the conversation about these things with our kids.

Jim: It’s hard to – you can’t hide.

John S.: You – you – that’s right, but I think a lot of parents avoid these. These are awkward topics.

John F.: We don’t want to get into this because we don’t really know what the answers are.

John S.: That’s right, and it’s awkward, and it’s weird and so on. But, you know, I think it was, uh, N. T. Wright who said, we don’t always as Christians get to, uh, choose which conversations we have in this culture. I didn’t plan to sit down after the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, for example, and have a conversation about that with my 6 and 8 – at the time 6, 8 and 10-year-old. But – but we did. And what do you do? Well, I think a couple things. Number one is you ask clarifying questions. What do you think about that? Um, uh, and so on. I think the other thing is – is you always put whatever cultural situation that you’re dealing with in light of, uh, the larger truth of Scripture.

So for example, on that specific topic of the Obergefell decision and same-sex marriage, we just did what Jesus did, um, with our kids, which is, you know, Jesus once was asked about marriage. And he said that how you know what marriage is is you’ve got to go back to the beginning. And so let’s go back to the beginning like Jesus told us to, and let’s see what did Jesus – how did Jesus describe marriage? Uh, and how does the Old Testament – how did Genesis describe marriage? And what do you think that means, in terms of what our Supreme Court just decided? And we just had that conversation.

One of the things is – uh, Jim, is that we get into our sound bite culture, and we want sound bites. But these things are long conversations.

Jim:John, let me – let me shift a little bit here, becauseI really want to get this question in.In the book, you talked about what drives us and motivates us as Christian parents is to keep them on the good side of decision making, on behavior and all that. If you do these good things, if you behave well and you’re on this side of the good line, then that’s great. And that line that divides between sin and good behavior is the key to life. You don’t want to go over that line. And that certainly is true. But you were, I thought, very provocative to say is that, really, the right question? Are you living pure? Or is there another question? Describe that.

John S.: Well, I mean, we can’t just approach culture as a line. You know, seeing everything on this side of the line as good and everything on that side of the line as bad, because what that does is it draws pretty arbitrary lines. And we miss our own cultural biases, and so on. I think a much better question is, what are our kids saved for? If we believe…

Jim: Say that again, because that’s critical.

John S.: What are we, and what are our children saved for?

Jim: What’s the reason for salvation?

John S.: Yeah. Why are we here? And if we’re actually here to make a difference in the culture, then just seeing all culture as, you know, kind of on this side of the line or that side of the line – don’t get me wrong, we need to make the decision to say no to porn, right? We need to make the decision to say no to racism, and to say yes to that which is good and true and beautiful. But the backdrop of all of this is the fact that Christ is risen. Christ is Lord. And Christ has put us in this cultural moment.

The other thing, though – and you speak so eloquently about this, Jim – is that if we just see everything in terms of that kind of a line of behavior, then we’re going to miss very important grace moments in the lives of our kids. Sometimes, it’s a far better day when a deep-rooted sin comes to light, even if it’s painful for a parent to see that in the life of their kid, than it is when it’s hidden, right? If we think they’re on the right side of the line, and we’re not giving them a chance to actually realize, no, I am a sinner, and my only hope is Christ’s blood, my only hope is Christ’s righteousness, instead of mine, we want to make sure they get to that point.

John F.: So how do we prepare for that moment? Because our children will mess up, and we can offer that grace, but what can we think, mentally, and put in our hearts to be ready for that moment?

Jim: Well, one is to say, did you mess up? John, what were you doing at 16, 17? I mean, that’s one of the battles for us, as parents, is we tend to think of ourselves today as, you know, further down that sanctification line. And we expect our 16, 17 year olds to be right on that same continuum with us. Howdo we do that? How do we help our children by, in some ways, being gracious like the Lord is to us?

John S.: Well, if you don’t have a relationship upfront, it makes it a lot more difficult. And that’s why so many times in the book, in a culture that gets in the way of face time and gets in the way of relationships, we have got to fight for that for our kids, so when those moments come, there’s a whole lot in the bank account to withdraw from. But then I’d also say, Jim, I love your advice there about, you know, being vulnerable. If we portray that we don’t make mistakes, if we don’t share our mistakes – I’ll tell you, one of the most powerful pieces of advice I ever got from a father of daughters. He had wonderful daughters. I taught him at a college level. And I met him, and I said how did – you know, what happened? He goes, “One of the things that I realized early on is I have an anger problem. So I’d blow up in front of my kids.” And he said, “I realized that I needed to not only say I’m sorry to them, but that they needed to see me get on my knees and repent. I didn’t go into the bedroom and repent to God for my anger problem. I would repent right in front of them. And they were able to see that I am a sinner saved by grace, and so are you.”

Jim: John, we also need to ask, that desire we have to impact culture – and to do it with the right reason – to impact culture for the sake of Christ, what are the questions we should be asking ourselves in that responsibility? Because, right now, there’s so much polarization. We don’t tend to express the love of Christ to people who disagree with us, not generally. I’m sure, hopefully, we’re doing it at the neighbor level, that we’re able to have communication with people we disagree with. But I’m concerned that that capability, that gift that God gives us to engage culture, is dwindling, because we’re so politicized with cable news and all the other things. And it’s not that our positions are wrong. I don’t believe they’re wrong. But it’s, how do we change the culture, not entrench the culture, into its positions, right?

John S.: Yeah. That’s exactly right. One of the undercurrents that we talk about in the book is the undercurrent ofperpetual adolescence.(chuckle) Now, you might call it the penalty of – the penalty of low expectations – right? – where we expect teenagers to not take responsibility. And I think this is one of the great places where we can rise above the culture, is – again, kids are kids, teenagers will be teenagers. But, we don’t have to kind of dismiss them with low expectations. And if we kind of help them understand, no, wait a minute, you can make a difference in somebody’s life.

We offer in the book four questions that people can ask about wherever God has placed them, that can help them make a difference, without kind of being trapped in the political divides or ideological divides that we have in our culture. The first one is,what’s good that we can promote and protect?The good in our culture needs to be protected, or you lose it. And how can – you know, what is good? Is it, you know, the dignity of human life? Is it religious freedom?A second question iswhat’s evil that we can stop?Christians have always stood athwart history and yelled no when it was appropriate. And there’s times we have to say – in defense of unborn life, in defense of marriage – no.

Jim: Yeah.

John S.: The third question is,what’s missing that we can contribute?You talk about, for example, what’s been done in extreme poverty around the world and dealing with that. It’s been – people realizing what’s missing is the rule of law and access to resources. And they figured out ways to contribute that.And thenfinally, what’s broken that we can fix?

Jim: I love it.

John S.: Isn’t that a great question? If you look in the Bible throughout Scripture, especially in the New Testament, whenever Paul or Jesus is talking about what it means to live out of your salvation, to be in Christ, He uses a lot of those “re” words – renew, restore, redeem, repent, resurrect. God must really love ‘re’ words, right? Because they’re all over the Bible. And “re” means to fix something that was broken, to go back to what it was intended to be.And we can live out of that story, even in the brokenness of our current moment.

Jim: That story that is there so we don’t have to live in a story-less narrative, where our teenagers are, you know, they’re just floundering. And I so appreciate the work that you and your co-author, Brett Kunkle, did onA Practical Guide To Culture. Folks, we are just scratching the surface, with our discussion today. And if it’s piqued your interest, I would really encourage you to get a copy of John and Brett’s book,A Practical Guide To Culture,because this is, I think, John, one of the strongest parenting resources that we’ve come across. Seriously…

John S.: I appreciate you saying that. Thank you.

Jim: …Because, this is where we’re living, with a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old. This is it. This is the battle. And how do we equip them and not see them as strangers in the home, or enemies, because they’re not necessarily embracing everything that we believe right now. But how do we help them discern and to think through these big questions that you have raised in this wonderful work? So, thank you for doing it, No. 1, and thank you for being with us. I’ll have one more question, when we come back. I’m full of questions for you.

John F.: Well, we’ve covered John’s book,A Practical Guide To Culture,and we’ll encourage you to get a copy from us here atFocus on the Family. When you do so, you’re helping families thrive around the world and your contribution makes a difference, so please, make a generous gift today when you call 800, the letter A and the word FAMILY. 800-232-6459.

You’ll also find the book and our free Parent’s Guide to Technology at focusonthefamily.com/radio.

Jim: John, the final question. When you look at Jesus and when He walked the earth, the religious people of the time, the Pharisees and Sadducees, would throw things at Him like, “He’s just a party goer.” You know, He’s over there with the sinners, with the tax collectors, the prostitutes. He would hang out with the wrong people. He was on the wrong side of the line. And there’s an application for us in that regard today, isn’t there?

John S.: There is. I love what Father Sirico from the Acton Institute says, “We’ve got to be ruthless with ideas and gentle with people,” right? The reason that we care about these things that are happening in our culture is, because they do great damage to people if they go the wrong direction. We say around the Colson Center ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. But the greatest commandment isn’t to behave. The greatest commandment isn’t to think. It isn’t even to believe. The greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Jim: That is well said.

John S.: And so, that’s what we want our kids to do. That’s cultural success.

Jim: Thanks for being with us, John.

John S.: It’s been great. Thank you.

Closing:

John F.: And certainly we hope that our broadcast today has equipped you as a mom or a dad to have some of thoseinitial conversations with your child. It’s so important. And a great tool to help you jumpstart those discussions isA Practical Guide To Culture: Helping The Next Generation Navigate Today’s World. And it’s written by John Stonestreet and his co-author Brett Kunkle. We’ve got it here at Focus on the Family and we’ll send a copy to you when you send a generous donation of any amount to theministry today. Once again, our number, 800, the letter A and the word FAMILY.

We’ll look forward to an Easter message from John Stonestreet in just a couple of weeks and be sure to listen tomorrow as we continue a theme here of conversations in your family.

Teaser:

Dr. Mike Bechtle:It’s interesting that the longer we’re married, the longer we’re connected with someone, sometimes the harder it is because we don’t want to go there. Little kids, they’re very honest about it. They’ll tell you if there’s an elephant in the room.

End of Teaser