Barbara Rainey's Top 10 Interviews

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
Rebooting Christmas (Part 1) - A Christ-Focused Christmas
Rebooting Christmas (Part 2) - Jesus, The Reason We Celebrate

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

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A Christ-Focused Christmas

Guest:                         Barbara Rainey                    

From the series:       Rebooting Christmas (Day 1 of 2)

Air date:                     November 26, 2012

Bob:  When the halls at your house get decked, what do they look like?  

Woman:  The first four years of our marriage we lived in apartments; so, to save on space—you know not having the big evergreen and then also not have to store it all year round, if you were to get a plastic one.  We already had an indoor Ficus; so, we just threw some Christmas lights on it and went and bought fancy ornaments and put it on there.  We were like, “It’s the traditional Christmas Ficus.”  At one point, I was singing, “Oh, Ficus tree, Oh, Ficus tree….”  

I wanted a tree just because it’s a part of Christmas décor, but it really was just, “We don’t have kids.  We don’t have room.  There’s really no point or no need.”  And I was like, “We’ve got to have something Christmas in the house.”  That’s when Josh was like, “We can decorate the Ficus.”  So, we went out and bought fancy blue and copper ornaments.  We were like, “We’re going to make it the high-class, traditional Christmas Ficus.”  
 
 So, we had that for a couple of years.  Then, we had red and green for a couple of years.  We’ll probably need to get new ones this year.  

We still put the presents underneath it, and I remember—I kid you not—this is our tree.  I mean we’ve got it and just like, “Yay!  The traditional Christmas Ficus is here,” because everyone in our family just knows that, that’s our—that’s our tree.  

Barbara:  What has made me sad for years is that our trees don’t tell the story of Christ, they don’t tell the story of Jesus.  I just started thinking about what would it be like if Christians all over the country and all over the world, in fact, would have the names of Christ on their trees and symbols of what Christmas is all about.  It would be a statement of our faith.  It would be a reminder of why we celebrate.  It’s a way of bringing the truth of Christ into our Christmas celebrations.  

Bob:  This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, November 26th.  Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  There’s nothing wrong with an occasional snowman or a reindeer, but what if your house could make a statement about Jesus during the Christmas season?  We’ll talk about how to do that today.  

And welcome to FamilyLife Today.  Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition.  

Dennis:  It is more beautiful here in the studio today.  (Laughter)  

Bob:  Would you like to explain why?  

Dennis:  That laugh you just heard is the reason, because wherever this woman goes, she makes things beautiful.  

Bob:  I’m just amazed—here’s what I’m amazed about—

Dennis:  It’s my wife, Barbara, by the way.  

Bob:  Yes, that’s right.  Barbara, welcome to FamilyLife Today.  

Dennis:  Welcome.

 Barbara:  Thank you, Bob.  

Bob:  I’m just amazed that you even had time to be here because the first half of the season is over—Thanksgiving is done, the turkey has been served, leftovers are mostly gone.  

Barbara:  In Tupperware containers or gone.  (Laughter)  

Bob:  Now, we’re gearing up for the second half; because as soon as you put everything away for Thanksgiving, you’ve got to flip the house into Christmas mode, don’t you?  

 Barbara:  Yes.  Yes, you’ve got to switch gears and switch gears quickly.  

Bob:  So, is the weekend—is Thanksgiving weekend relaxing or is it just—

Barbara:  For us?  

Bob:  Yes.  

 Barbara:  Yes, it’s relaxing because we don’t switch gears and put the tree up on Friday morning like a lot of families do.  I just—I just want to enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend.  It’s our favorite holiday.  We often have kids home.  We don’t usually have children, our adult kids, home at Christmas.  We have them at Thanksgiving, and I want to enjoy them.  So, we don’t usually start that until Monday after everyone is gone—or Tuesday or the next weekend, for that matter.  

Dennis:  She really does not like the whole commercialization of Christmas that starts back before July 4th.  (Laughter)  

Bob:  There is a reason why FamilyLife Today listeners don’t hear us talking about Christmas until now.  

Dennis:  And it’s Barbara.  

Bob:  We don’t bring it up—there’s an embargo on our calendars: “You cannot mention Christmas”—

Dennis:  You know what?  Seriously.  

Bob:  Honestly.  

Dennis:  There are those here at FamilyLife on the team who -- it’s been brought up before that we should feature some of the resources we create for listeners -- but they said, “Oh, no, no.”  

Bob:  “No, no.”  

Dennis:  “You can’t do that.  Barbara”—

Bob:  “Barbara would not allow it.”  (Laughter)  

Dennis:  —“would not allow this.”  

Barbara:  As if I have this great authority, which I do not.  

 Bob:  Trust me.  Trust me.  

Dennis:  Well, you did on this one.  

Bob:  More than you know.  

Dennis:  ...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
Rebooting Christmas (Part 1) - A Christ-Focused Christmas
Rebooting Christmas (Part 2) - Jesus, The Reason We Celebrate

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.

Jesus: the Reason We Celebrate

Guest:                         Barbara Rainey                    

From the series:       Rebooting Christmas (Day 2 of 2)

Air date:                     November 27, 2012 

Bob:  Are we getting Christmas right?  Barbara Rainey says, “Maybe not.”  

Barbara:  So many people, even if they don’t know Christ, they do know that something is not right with the way we celebrate Christmas; they do know that the commercialism and the focus on all the stuff is wrong; they know it’s too much; and they don’t know why, and they don’t know what it is.  So I think that it would be very easy to approach a neighbor and say, “We’re really trying, in our family, to make the focus of Christmas about what it’s all about.”  
 
I think people will get it even if they don’t totally understand it; because I think we all know that it’s—the whole system is not quite right.  

Bob:  This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, November 27th.  Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God.  What if your Christmas tree did the same thing?  We’ll talk about that today.  

And welcome to FamilyLife Today.  Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition.  I almost didn’t expect to see you here today.  I thought your wife, Barbara, would be here again, as she is; but I thought maybe you’d still be home unpacking boxes.  

 Dennis:  Pulling boxes out of the attic, all the ornaments, all the Christmas trappings.  

Bob:  ‘Tis the week to decorate the house.

Dennis:  Yes, it is.  

Barbara:  Yes, except that he doesn’t unpack the boxes; he merely carries them into the house.  

Bob:  And then goes and turns on the game.  

Dennis:  No, no, that’s not true.  (Laughter)  We used to have—we used to have some kids to help her; but now, it’s just us.  We have—

Bob:  Now, it’s the old mule.  (Laughter)  Get the old mule out.  

Dennis:  As my mom used to say, “The old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be.”  (Laughter)  But it is a fun time of the year, and all these trappings of Christmas all carry meaning with them; and that’s really what we wanted to talk with listeners about today—is the meaning of Christmas and helping you truly celebrate the reason for the season.  

Bob:  One of the reasons that Barbara is here with us is because of some work she’s been doing over the last several months on developing resources for families to use at Christmas.  I’m wondering, looking at some of these resources—our listeners know that Thanksgiving has always been your favorite holiday.  I’m just wondering if Christmas is starting to edge in on the competition here.  

Barbara:  Well, I wouldn’t say it’s edging in on the competition as far as the experience.  I still love Thanksgiving because our family is usually around; but I love Christmas because—all of us love Christmas.  I loved Christmas as a child and couldn’t wait for Christmas, as a child growing up.  

I remember—the interesting memory that I have, or one of the interesting memories that I have as a child, is I remember watching friends of mine who were Catholic who would go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve; and I used to think, “What do they do?  What are they learning?  What are they hearing?  What am I missing out on?”—because there was something that said to me, “That was meaningful,” and I wanted something meaningful in our Christmas celebration.  

 We didn’t do a lot as a family, and we didn’t talk about it a lot.  I remember as a kid longing for that.  I knew there was more to the Christmas celebration that we had in my house growing up as a child than there was.  I mean I kept looking at these other people thinking, “What am I missing?  What else should there be?”  

 Bob:  It’s interesting as you mention that.  I’m thinking back to Christmas as a child where the focus of Christmas on Jesus really only came through in carols we sang or heard on the stereo—

Dennis:  Yes, right.  

Bob:  —or what might get talked about in church.  

Barbara:  Exactly.  

Bob:   Other than that, it was mostly presents—that was what I was locked in on—

Barbara:  Yes, me too.  

Bob:  —or decorations or activities or parties—whatever was going on.  I don’t remember a whole lot of spiritual focus in our house growing up.  Was there much in yours? 

Dennis:  Not a lot.  In fact, one of the highlights of our Christmas was—and some of our listeners will find this kind of odd—but we used to wrap joke packages.  

My mom and I would go upstairs to kind of Santa’s workshop.  And on Christmas Eve, my mom and I would get so tickled, we would have tears streaming down our faces at these really dumb gifts that we were wrapping for various members of the family that we would put under the tree.  We would not put a “To: Gary,” my brother, “From: Dennis”.  It wouldn’t have any from.  It would say, “From: Santa.”  

It was just having fun, but I longed—just like Barbara was talking about—I really longed for those more spiritual moments that you would see sometimes in the movies that surrounded Christmas that did have the carols, the Christmas carols that were being sung about Christ.

I know when we became parents, one of the things that we talked a great deal about was how could we as a mom and dad with our six children make Christmas focused upon the birthday celebration of the King of kings and Lord of lords, how God became flesh and dwelt among us.  I’d have to say, Bob, I would give Barbara and me probably a C-minus, maybe a D-plus.  We just didn’t find a lot of good ways to do that.  

One of the things we had was a nativity set made of olive wood tha...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
How Pinterest Stole Christmas (Part 1) - Putting Christ First
How Pinterest Stole Christmas (Part 2) - Making Jesus Our Focus

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.

Putting Christ First

Guest:                         Barbara Rainey                    

From the series:       How Pinterest Stole Christmas (Day 1 of 2)

Air date:                     December 1, 2014   

Bob: Let’s be honest. The Christmas season can be overwhelming; can’t it? Barbara Rainey remembers, as she was raising her children, all of the expectations she placed on herself—expectations about gift-giving.

Barbara: I wanted to say, “Thank you,” to the people that delivered our mail. I wanted to say, “Thank you,” to their piano teacher, and the list went on and on. I was imposing a standard on myself—and it was probably all skewed up and all wrong. I was, at some level, looking for affirmation from people; or, at some level, I was probably looking for someone to give me a pat on the back that I was the best mom in the world—I don’t know. So, I’m often my worst enemy. I think a lot of women are like that. We’re often our own worst enemy. We have expectations of ourself that God does not have of us.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, December 1st. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We’ll talk today about making the holiday season a little more manageable. 

1:00

It all starts by having your priorities straight. Stay tuned.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition. You know, you get to the end of the Thanksgiving celebration—the weekend is over—and you feel like, [big sigh] “I can take a breath.”

Dennis: And then you turn the calendar—

Bob: That’s right!

Dennis: --and it’s upon you—the Christmas rush!

Bob: “I can’t stop for anything!” 

Dennis: It would be interesting to have a stress meter, especially on young moms who are really trying to make Christmas the holiday of holidays during the year.

Bob: Maybe it’s an Ever Thine Home® product you can create—a stress meter. [Laughter]

Dennis: Barbara joins us on FamilyLife Today. Welcome back to the broadcast, Sweetheart.

Barbara: Thanks. Glad to be here.

Bob: This season of the year—Thanksgiving/Christmas—this is your favorite time of the year.

Barbara: It is.

Bob: And it’s also a time of the year that you always dread.

Barbara: It’s the craziest; yes.

2:00

Bob: For most moms, they feel a burden during this season to want to pull off a great family holiday thing. That burden can just punch them in the gut; can’t it?

Barbara: Well, it makes it impossible. It’s truly impossible to create the kind of Christmas that can be imagined. Most moms and women imagine creating something that’s truly memorable, and it’s meaningful, and it touches our lives. We get up in the morning—we’re full of energy—we play carols, and we bake cookies, and we take them to our neighbors. We do something for the postman and for all the teachers. We just have a desire to do all of that, and it’s just overwhelming. I ended up, every year, feeling like a failure in so many ways.

Bob: And now you’re blaming Pinterest® for the whole thing; right?

Barbara: Well, I didn’t—I just stop and think, “What would it have been like had I had Pinterest?”—

3:00

—because I’m thinking it was bad enough with my own expectations that I put on myself to make Christmas memorable for my kids and to do all these things that, in my mind, would communicate love to all these people in our lives. If I had had Pinterest, I don’t know what would have happened to me—I would have had a nervous breakdown—I don’t know.

Dennis: A million of your closest friends would have taken their images of what they’re doing, and you would have compared what you’re doing unfavorably.

Barbara: Oh, for sure I would have. Of course, I would have because all women do that—we always are comparing our homes, and our kids, and our clothes, and our yards, and our everything with other women. From a distance, we always fall short—so, at Christmas, it’s no different. 

I would have gotten on Pinterest, ostensibly, to look for some really cool ideas because there are recipes, and decorating ideas, and crafts—you name it—it’s on Pinterest. I would have gotten on, looking for those things, thinking, “This is going to help me,” when, in fact, it probably would have squashed me and killed me.

4:00

Dennis: So, you’ve taken all of your theological background/your gift in art, and you have designed something else for moms to do?

Barbara: Well, the reason—yes, I have. [Laughter] Yes, now that you put it that way. But here’s the deal—I think what we women—because it’s not just young moms / because I feel the same thing today, although to a lesser degree, because I don’t have kids—but I think what we women want to do is: We feel a desire, and I think it’s a good desire, to make the holidays—our Christian holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter—to make them meaningful because we know that there is great, deep, eternal meaning in the incarnation of Christ and His resurrection at Easter.

So, because we know that, we think: “Okay, if I bake all these cookies…” or “If I give all these gifts…” or “If I decorate my house so that it’s really, really special with lots of lights, it will make it meaningful.” 

5:00

Obviously, it is different from our everyday, normal routine. But you can’t find meaning in the superficial. I think we get confused, as women, thinking that adding all these things—these exterior things—is going to impart meaning / it’s going to make something special. Well, maybe it does make it special, at a certain level; but it doesn’t connect us to the eternal. I t...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
How Pinterest Stole Christmas (Part 1) - Putting Christ First
How Pinterest Stole Christmas (Part 2) - Making Jesus Our Focus

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.

Making Jesus Our Focus

Guest:                        Barbara Rainey                    

From the series:       How Pinterest Stole Christmas (Day 2 of 2)

Air date:                     December 2, 2014

Bob: When you get to December 26th, and you look back on the last couple of weeks, how will you determine whether the time leading up to Christmas was a success? Barbara Rainey says you’ve got to have your priorities right.

Barbara: Moms can look at all the things on their list—they can look at the cookies, and the Christmas cards, and the gifts, and all of that stuff—and decide, “What is really most important?” If, at the top of your list, you say, “Teaching my kids about Christ in the month of December,” some of those other things on your list might have to go. If you don’t get the cookies done, no one’s going to remember; but your kids might remember some of what they heard about Jesus. That’s worth more than any of the traditions you’re trying to keep.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, December 2nd. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I’m Bob Lepine. We want to do what we can do today to help out so that, when you do get to December 26th, you can look back and say, “That was a good Christmas season.”  Stay tuned.

1:00

Bob: And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition. So, is it true that you moved, years ago, out to the end of a street so you wouldn’t have to put up lights on your—[Laughter] That’s what I was told—you said, “I want to be where I don’t have to go through that every year.”

Dennis: We moved into the country, just over the hill—[Laughter] —so no one drives by our house. 

Bob: We do have your wife, Barbara, joining us again on FamilyLife Today. Barbara, welcome to FamilyLife Today.

Barbara: Thanks—Bob. 

Bob: We’re glad you’re joining us this week because we want to talk about how overwhelming Christmas can be / the holiday season can be—particularly, for moms—particularly, when you have kids of all ages with all kinds of priorities of their own. 

2:00

This is a season of the year where, not only are the activities highlighted, but you’ve got an objective around trying to get ready for the big day that includes buying presents and decorating the home. Decorating the home is something that—I’ve been in your home at Christmas.

Dennis: Oh, my! Oh, yes—in fact, here’s what happens. [Laughter] About the first of November, she says, “I think I want you to go to the attic and pull down all of the boxes.”

Barbara: That is not true!

Dennis: Now this takes a small, load-bearing piece of equipment called a “husband” to go get the boxes.

Bob: Yes.

Dennis: It’s a piece of work at our place.

Bob: And the transformation of your home into Christmas mode—is it a full-day job to get the decorating done? 

Barbara: Well, yes. If I started in the morning and went all day, it probably would; but I don’t stay that focused, so it’s pieces of several days.

Bob: So, for pieces of several days, you are going to be consumed for part of that with decorating the house. 

3:00

Were you doing this when the kids were little? 

Barbara: Yes.

Bob: How did you do it?!

Barbara: I let other things go because it was more important to me than other things.

Bob: What was important? Why were you decorating the house?

Barbara: I think the reason—and I did this when I was a kid too—my mother, bless her heart, was very, very generous with allowing me to express my creativity and my artistic vision for what our house should look like. She let me decorate our house when I was a kid. I set up a card table in my bedroom. I was the gift-wrapping queen of the whole house—I wrapped my own gifts / I wrapped gifts for everybody else because I wanted it to be magical—I wanted it to be beautiful. I just had this vision of what it should be like.

Bob: Now, you’re decorating everybody’s house—that’s what you’re doing! [Laughter] This whole—all of these resources you’ve been working on in Ever Thine Home®—you just want to decorate everybody’s house in the world; don’t you?

4:00

Barbara: No, I really don’t want to decorate everybody else’s house. [Laughter] I want everybody’s Christmas trees—people who are putting up Christmas trees—and I realize not everybody puts up a Christmas tree—but for those who do—I think our Christmas trees should be about Christ. That’s really what I want.

Bob: Over the last three years, you have created ornaments to put on Christmas trees. We call them Adorenaments®. The first year, you put out a set of seven ornaments that were all about the Christmas names of Christ— 

Barbara: Yes.

Bob: —from Luke, Chapter 2, and from Isaiah, Chapter 9. Then, last year, the royal names. Those were the shapes of crowns.

Barbara: Correct.

Bob: And you’ve got a third set of ornaments / seven ornaments this year. These are the Savior names. Where did you come up with the list of seven Savior names?

Barbara: You know, choosing seven is tough because there are some that can go both ways.

Bob: Right.

Barbara: But I just started—as I’ve been reading through the Bible, every time I see a name of Christ, whether in the Old Testament or in the New, I’ve just got this running list—I’ve been throwing them on there. 

5:00

Then I’ll look at it and kind of go, “Okay, which ones are…?”—a...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
The Season of Gratitude (Part 1) - Forget Not His Benefits
The Season of Gratitude (Part 2) - Cultivating Gratitude in the Heart of a Child

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.

Forget Not His Benefits 

Guest:                         Barbara Rainey        

From the series:       The Season of Gratitude (Day 2 of 3)

Air date:                     November 5, 2015

Bob: As a parent, should you train your children to be polite and say, “Thank you,” even if they are not feeling thankful in their heart?  Here’s Barbara Rainey. 

Barbara: There were plenty of times when our kids said, “Uh, thanks”; or they said it, and you could tell it wasn’t really heartfelt. But they need to be trained to say, “Thank you,” because as we’ve already said, “It’s not natural.”  So, that was a really big thing for me—was to teach our kids to say, “Thank you,” whenever they were given something, or helped, or served. 

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Thursday, November 5th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I’m Bob Lepine. We’re going to continue to talk today about what moms and dads can do to help their children become more grateful. Stay tuned. 

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us. You know, we had the opportunity—

1:00

—this was not long ago, when our family was together—and we were talking about: “What were the things that they remember from growing up?  What are some of their favorite memories?”  It is interesting to me how many memories your kids have from when they’re growing up are connected to holidays and vacations. 

Dennis: And could I add one thing—

Bob: Yes. 

Dennis: —additional?—a tradition that is attached to a holiday or a vacation. 

Bob: Well, that’s—when we are in the midst of it, I mean, we know that vacations are fun and that holidays are fun; but I don’t know that we realize how significant these things are—how much a part of the memory bank of a child. What you’re going to do for Thanksgiving this year, what you’re going to do for Christmas this year, or what you do next summer on vacation—you are building a memory bank for your kids that will define—in large measure, it’s a part of what they take with them into adulthood. 

Dennis: It is. 

2:00

I was looking through some documents that I had to kind of catalogue some of our early Christmases together, as our kids began to get married and bring their spouses to Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and Easter. It was interesting—some of the things that were written were thoughts by a new son-in-law or daughter-in-law, saying, “I loved the fact that we got a chance to see a different tradition or a new tradition that, perhaps, we can make a part of our family as we establish our own.” 

I think it’s that longing you are talking about, Bob. When your children grow up, they are going to anchor their own family around these holidays; and they, for the most part, are holidays that represent biblical truths and biblical holidays that families have been entrusted to help their children celebrate. 

I’m fortunate that I out-punted my coverage in that I married Barbara because she brought this strong emphasis—

3:00

—not that I didn’t have one from my own childhood—I did—but she brought an even stronger emphasis around the holidays, but around celebrating them and the biblical message that each holiday brought. 

Bob: Barbara, welcome back to the program. 

Barbara: Thank you. 

Bob: Did you recognize, as a young mom, that holidays, and celebrations, and vacations—that these are important for how your kids grow up and develop?  

Barbara: I don’t think I understood the value of vacations as much because we didn’t do a lot of vacations in my childhood, growing up; but holidays were always really important to me, as a kid. I intuitively knew—and I think this is true for all kids—I intuitively knew there was something meaningful / something really important, and I couldn’t express it. I didn’t know what it was; but there was something about Christmas, and Thanksgiving, and Easter that was more meaningful and more important than anything else we did the rest of the year. 

4:00

And so, as we got married, one of my objectives and goals was to try and find ways to make those holidays meaningful—and especially to make them meaningful, biblically, because God made it really clear in the Old Testament, when He established the feasts, that the nation of Israel was to keep—that setting aside your normal ordinary activities and focusing on Him—and having a holiday, or a feast, or a time away from work—He knew that was important for us, as people. Today, we don’t celebrate those feasts; but we celebrate Christmas—and Thanksgiving, here in America—and we celebrate Easter. And those are very important spiritual religious holidays. 

Bob: We are—as we invest in these moments, we’re building a memory box / a memory bank. I don’t know if we’ve ever stopped to think about how important remembering is / how important reflecting on the past is. 

5:00

You’ve been digging around in the Scriptures to see what God’s Word has to say about remembering and why remembering is so important; right?  

Barbara: You know, out of all of these verses that there are in the Scriptures about giving thanks, and thanksgiving, and being grateful—one of my favorites is one that says it in the opposite way—and that’s Psalm 103 [verse 2], where we are commanded to “…forget not His benefits...”  It’s the opposite of remembering. They are two sides of the same coin; but it’s a different way to look at it when you think about “Don’t forget what God has done,” because we’re all so prone to forget; right? All of us forget a whole host of things. God is saying: “No, no, no—don’t forget what I’ve done. You can forget your car keys and all that kind of stuff, but don’t forget what I’ve done because what I have done is the most important thing that you can remember.”  

Bob: If you start forgetting the goodness of God in the past—in fact, how we live by faith today is really vitally co...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
The Season of Gratitude (Part 1) - Forget Not His Benefits
The Season of Gratitude (Part 2) - Cultivating Gratitude in the Heart of a Child

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.

Cultivating Gratitude in the Heart of a Child

Guest:                         Barbara Rainey        

From the series:       The Season of Gratitude (Day 3 of 3)

Air date:                     November 6, 2015

Bob: Are your kids as grateful as they ought to be?  Maybe, they need to be hiding God’s Word in their heart. Here’s Barbara Rainey. 

Barbara: One of the easiest to memorize is “Give thanks in all things,”— 

1 Thessalonians 5:18. It’s very easy for even a three-year or a four-year-old to memorize. It’s just as important for the 18-year-old and the adult because that’s a pretty comprehensive verse. When you stop and think about it—giving thanks in all things—that is never going to run out in anybody’s life. 

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Friday, November 6th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I’m Bob Lepine. Thanksgiving is more than just a day on a calendar. It is a commandment from God that we be thankful. We’ll talk about how we cultivate that in our own hearts and in our families today. Stay tuned. 

1:00

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Friday edition. We’ve been talking this week about the fact that there’s a big holiday coming up this month—and that we ought to pay attention, we ought to make memories, we ought to help our kids embrace gratitude as a way of life / be thankful. The reality is—everything we are talking about is not going to happen unless we have a little intentionality about this. 

 Dennis: That’s exactly right, and you know why?  

Bob: Why?  

 Dennis: Because there has been a robbery. There has been a robbery—

Bob: Okay?  What’s been taken?  

 Dennis: —of Thanksgiving from families. Families are not thankful. What they need to realize is—and I just wrote some of them down—and by the way, welcome to the broadcast, Sweetheart—Barbara joins us again on FamilyLife Today. Welcome back. 

Barbara: Thank you. Glad to be here. 

Dennis: All of our listeners are glad you are here. You add a lot of credibility and reality to this broadcast—not that Bob and I don’t have either, but you add more. [Laughter]  

2:00

Barbara: I’m an eyewitness; right?  

Dennis: Yes. So, here are some of the robbers of Thanksgiving in our families—the first one—pace. You think that robs a lot of families?—just the sheer busyness of life. 

Bob: Now, are you talking about things that rob the holiday or things that rob the attitude of Thanksgiving?  

 Dennis: I’m talking about—

Barbara: The attitude. 

Dennis: It’s the attitude; but frankly, it also robs the holiday too. 

Bob: You’re just saying that the constant pace of life—the speed at which we are running—we forget to be grateful. 

Dennis: Most families are running flat-out. In fact, we look at our five married children—look at their schedules—remarkable. Second one, neglect—we just neglect to make thankfulness a part of our everyday lives. As a result, we take each other for granted. 

Third—this is the human heart here—greed, jealousy, envy, discontent. It’s our nature to be critical / to be fault-finding, to grumble—

3:00

—like we talked earlier—to dispute / to gripe. These robbers are coming at families, left and right. What we have to do is find a way to seize the holiday—and not merely the holiday—but to make thanksgiving a part of the DNA of our families. 

Bob: One of your children was asked one time how he would describe you in a single word. You know the story I’m talking about; right?  

Dennis: I do. 

Bob: And you know how—

Barbara: I know it too. 

Bob: —your son—what was the word he used?  

Dennis: I thought he could have picked a better word. 

 Bob: What was the word that he used?  

Dennis: I would not have thought of this word in a hundred years. [Laughter]

Barbara: But it’s true. 

Bob: Barbara, what was the word?  

Barbara: The word was “intentional.”  

Bob: And you agree that that—

Barbara: I would agree. 

Bob: —is the defining word?  

Barbara: I don’t know if it’s the defining word; but it is definitely, I would say, one of the top five. 

Bob: And if they were asked—if the kids were asked to define you in a word, would intentional be one of the top five for you?  

Barbara: I would think it would be in the top five. [Laughter]

Bob: So, Mr. Intentional—

Barbara: They got a double dose!  

Bob: —and Mrs. Intentional got married; huh?  

Dennis: Well, we’re both about seizing the moment. 

4:00

Barbara: Yes, we are. I think it’s—in the holidays, it’s especially important that we seize the moment and that we are intentional about making it what we want it to be. If we want to focus on gratitude, we’ve got to find a way to do it because it’s not going to happen naturally. 

Bob: So, if parents are thinking, “Okay, I want to be intentional,”—and we want them to be intentional and have some focus. Yet, as soon as you start talking about it—Dennis, you said pace i...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
Exalting Easter (Part 1) - Making the Most of Easter
Exalting Easter (Part 2) - Remembering the Resurrection

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

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Making the Most of Easter

Guest:                        Barbara Rainey                    

From the series:       Ideas for Celebrating Easter (Day 1 of 5)

Air date:                     March 27, 2017

Bob: We are in the middle of the Lenten season; and yet, many Christians don’t know what Lent is all about. Here’s Barbara Rainey.

Barbara: Lent is to Easter what Advent is to Christmas—does that make sense? Lent is to Easter what Advent is to Christmas. Both of them are times of preparing to celebrate God’s intervention on our behalf—the coming of Christ at Christmas and then the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ at Easter. Both of them are very important holidays, but Easter is the most important.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, March 27th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We’ll hear today from Barbara Rainey about what we can do, as moms and dads, to draw more attention to the most important day of the year—Resurrection Day. Stay with us. 

1:00

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition. If any of our listeners are not interested in getting fired up about Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, they ought to go ahead and tune the—turn their channel somewhere else right now.

Dennis: I’m telling you—this is the greatest season of all. I love Christmas—I think Christmas is fantastic. Obviously, Easter would not be possible had not Christmas come first. But this [Easter] is the holiday on which all of the Christian faith really pivots.

Bob: Your wife is joining us this week. 

Barbara, I used to think that Thanksgiving was your favorite holiday. Didn’t it used to be your favorite holiday?

Barbara: It did—used to be my favorite holiday.

Bob: But something has happened.

Barbara: It’s not anymore. 

Bob: Why?

Barbara: I still love Thanksgiving / Thanksgiving is great fun. But I absolutely love Easter; because I have come to understand it in a way that I didn’t, years ago—what it’s all about and how pivotal it is, as Dennis has just said. 

2:00 

Without Easter, nothing else would matter. We wouldn’t have Thanksgiving; we wouldn’t have Christmas; we wouldn’t have anything because we would still be in our sin. We would have no hope; and we wouldn’t understand forgiveness; and we wouldn’t understand love. It’s everything. So, to me—because I’ve come to understand that Easter is all about everything that God intended—to me, we need to do a better job of celebrating it.

Bob: It’s interesting—if you read I Corinthians 15, which is that resurrection chapter—

Barbara: Right.

Dennis: Did you look over my shoulder?

Bob: I did not! [Laughter]

Paul begins that chapter by saying, “This is of first importance.” He said, “I delivered to you what is of first importance.” Then he goes on and he says it’s the gospel / the good news. You can summarize the gospel into: Jesus died, He was buried, and He was resurrected—that’s at the heart of our message. He goes on to say [paraphrased], “You take that away, we got nothing.”

Barbara: Right; he said, “If Christ wasn’t raised, our faith is in vain.”

3:00

Dennis: Yes; that’s what I was reading—I Corinthians 15, verse 17-19. If you haven’t read it—to your children; to one another, as husband and wife; or to a friend—you just ought to remind somebody of this truth / it says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile,”—empty— 

Barbara: —pointless—

Dennis: —“and you are still in your sins,”—which means you’re still guilty, as charged, before Almighty God and you are falling under the wrath of God. Then it goes on to say, “Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished,”—they don’t have eternal life / they died—they went to hell! And verse 19, “If in this life only, we have hope in Christ, we of all people are most to be pitied.” 

What’s Paul saying there?—if Christ did not defeat death / if the resurrection is not a reality, then we are without hope. 

4:00

Bob: We are basing everything on a lie.

Dennis: I mentioned it earlier—all of Christianity pivots on the reality and the historical fact that Jesus Christ lived, died, rose again, and is seated at the right hand of God.

Bob: Barbara, you had the opportunity, a number of years ago, to share with our listeners at an event. You were sharing about your growing burden and passion for the celebration of Easter. It’s interesting to listen back to this because you can see how it’s starting to formulate and take shape in your own thinking. Again, this is from a few years back, as Barbara is connecting with a group of our listeners about why Easter is so important.

[Recorded Message]

Barbara: About a year ago, Dennis and I were listening to a sermon by Tim Keller. 

5:00

During the sermon, he quoted this stanza of a hymn; and I had never heard it before. The stanza of the hymn [Thou Art Coming to a King] goes like this—that I memorized:

Thou art coming to a King, 

Large petitions with thee bring.

For His grace and power are such

None can ever ask too much.

I just thought: “Wow! I am coming to the King every time I pray.” So often, I come with little things—selfish things: “Lord, help me find a parking place,”—just trivial, dumb stuff; right? But when I heard that that day, I thought: “I’m coming to the King. God wants me to come before Him with prayers that are worthy of Him.” It’s not that He doesn’t want us to pray about small things—I still pray about small things—but it lifted my eyes to the magnitude of who He is and w...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
Exalting Easter (Part 1) - Making the Most of Easter
Exalting Easter (Part 2) - Remembering the Resurrection

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.

Remembering the Resurrection

Guest:                        Barbara Rainey                                

From the series:       Ideas for Celebrating Easter (Day 2 of 5)

Air date:                     March 28, 2017

Bob: The great hymn writer, Isaac Watts, knew the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection—he wrote: “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count as loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.” Here’s Barbara Rainey.

Barbara: When you think about what Jesus did for us, we should be speechless; we should be in awe; we should fall on our faces. That’s the kind of experience / that’s the kind of emotion—that’s what I think we need in Easter. It shouldn’t be a holiday that we just kind of say, “Oh, well.” We need to feel some of what Jesus felt; and we need to be in awe; and we need to marvel over what He did for us.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, March 28th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. 

1:00

We’ll hear today from Barbara Rainey about things we can do to help prepare our hearts so that we can, indeed, marvel at all Christ has done as we celebrate His resurrection. Stay with us.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition. If this was last year, Easter would be over—or almost over.

Barbara: It would be; yes.

Bob: You know, one of the things that makes celebrating Easter more of a challenge for us is that it’s not on the same day every year!

Barbara: Yes.

Dennis: Right.

Bob: I mean, Thanksgiving moves—but it’s always the fourth Thursday in November.

Barbara: But it doesn’t ever change months.

Bob: Right.

Barbara: It’s always near the end of the month; so even if the date moves, it doesn’t move very far.

Bob: But Easter can be anywhere from, I think—March 22nd or 23rd—I think it’s about the earliest it can be—

Barbara: Yes; yes.

Bob: —to where it is now, which is April 16th—or even later than that.

2:00

Barbara: Oh, it can be later; because a couple of years ago, it was on the 23rd.

Bob: Well, it’s obvious we’ve got your wife joining us, again, this week on FamilyLife Today. 

Barbara: Yes.

Bob: You just jumped right in; didn’t you?

Barbara: I did; yes! [Laughter]

Bob: This is one of those topics that you just jump in on, right from the start.

Barbara: Yes; I kind of care about this a little bit. [Laughter]

Bob: In fact, one of the things you’re hoping for this year is to motivate, equip, and inspire a lot of moms and dads to make Easter more central in their home, in the weeks leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, but even, specifically, during Holy Week— 

Barbara: Yes.

Bob: —and then during Easter weekend.

Barbara: Yes; that’s right. We’ve just totally missed—I’ve said it often in the last couple of years—that Jesus commanded us to remember His death and to focus on His resurrection. He never said that He wants us to celebrate His birth. And what have we done, as Christians? We’ve completely flipped it upside down, which is typical of us—to get what He said completely wrong— 

3:00

—just realizing that we put so much time and energy in on Christmas, and He didn’t ask us to do that—and we put so little time and energy on celebrating Easter; and He did tell us to celebrate, and remember, and commemorate what He did for us. It’s kind of like: “Well, duh! Of course, we need to do more about Easter.”

I’m on a personal campaign for my own family to make Easter memorable / to make it a very big deal—to celebrate / to have a fancy meal. I don’t even know what we’re going to eat this year, but we’re going to knock it out of the park; because I just don’t want it to be an ordinary Sunday anymore. I want it to be something that really stands out in our memories—that that Sunday / Easter Sunday was like no other Sunday.

Bob: You have enlisted some help—you’ve put together a survey and started getting results back.

Barbara: I did; yes. Last spring, I sent out a survey to a fairly large group. 

4:00

It’s probably not scientifically accurate; but nonetheless, we sent out a survey to a bunch of people that we know—who have used some of the products that we’ve created/the resources that we’ve created with their families—who seem to care about Easter and want to make more of Easter. I sent them a long list of questions, and I had so much fun reading their answers.

There were all kinds of really creative ideas for how to celebrate Easter and make it special, make it set apart, and make it different than any other Sunday. I compiled all of those. I’m hoping that we can get to some of the best ones, in the next couple of days, as we talk about this together; because there were some really good ideas—some that I’m going to adopt and do myself.

Bob: Can you give us an example of one?

Barbara: Yes; I would love to give you an idea. One family wrote and said that they acted out the Palm Sunday story every year with their kids. They got out the Bible—they read the story right out of the Bible of Jesus making His triumphal entry on the donkey into Jerusalem, with all of the palm branches and everything. 

5:00

Acting it out at home is a little different than Palm Sunday at church, when...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
Reclaiming Easter (Part 1) - The Miracle of Easter
Reclaiming Easter (Part 2) - Regaining the High Ground
Reclaiming Easter (Part 3) - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Easter

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.

The Miracle of Easter

Guest:                         Barbara Rainey                    

From the series:       Reclaiming Easter (Day 1 of 4)

Air date:                     March 16, 2015

Bob: This is the season of the year—the Easter season—when Barbara Rainey says we ought to be contemplating how, as forgiven people, we have a responsibility to forgive others.

Barbara: It’s essential for every marriage, it’s essential for every family, it’s essential for every working relationship because we’re all broken and we’re all going to make mistakes. We’re going to all need to, not only give forgiveness, but to be granted forgiveness. The more families can talk about forgiveness, the more it becomes something that they understand / they can grasp—they know how to practice it / they know what it looks like.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, March 16th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I’m Bob Lepine. We’re going to focus today on how you can make the Easter season a more special and more meaningful season at your house. Stay tuned.

1:00

Bob: And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition. You know, if this was the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, we would all be very aware that Christmas was just around the corner. You couldn’t go anywhere without knowing that it’s Christmas time.

Dennis: The culture celebrates it—in fact, overdoes the giving aspect of Christmas.

Bob: But here it is—we’re a few weeks away from Easter, and there is pretty much nothing that indicates that to you if you’re out in the shopping mall or if you’re driving in your car. Easter just isn’t talked about—it’s ignored.

Dennis: It, unfortunately, is—one of the most holy and profound weeks in any person who professes to follow Jesus Christ.

Bob: Right.

Dennis: It’s because of what He did and what Easter represents that we have hope—not only of eternal life—but also a message to bring to our culture. 

2:00

I’m going to tell you something, Bob—if I’ve ever sensed a need for us, as adults, and our children to have hope, it’s today—because I think, in a lot of places, followers of Christ are being robbed of their hope. We have a special guest with us on today’s broadcast.

Bob: In fact, we could say this is your favorite guest; can’t we? [Laughter]

Dennis: I think she’s been my favorite for 42 years and 43 Christmases. We laugh about this all the time. We had a big joke, early in our marriage, about how many Christmases we had celebrated. We always celebrate—

Barbara: —one more Christmas than anniversary.

Dennis: Yes, so it’s kind of tricky—anyway, 43 Christmases / 42 years of marriage. Welcome to the broadcast, Sweetheart.

Barbara: Thanks. Glad to be here.

Bob: You need to be counting how many Easters you’ve celebrated because that’s what we’re talking about here; right?

Barbara: That’s what we’re talking about—that’s right. Yes, instead of Christmases—you’re right.

Bob: And you’re very aware of the fact that this is a culturally-ignored holiday. As a result, a lot of Christians don’t even think about Easter until it is like: “Oh, this Sunday, it’s Easter!”

3:00

Barbara: Oh, yes—like “…tomorrow.” 

Bob: Yes.

Barbara: No, Christians are not thinking about it. Part of it is because we’re so used to being surrounded by everything that reminds us of Christmas during the month of December and, sadly, months before the month of December; but Easter is not like that. We don’t have music that’s playing on the radio, we don’t have decorations that are in every store, and we don’t have lights strung from houses. We don’t have anything that calls our attention to the fact that Easter is about to come and that Easter is the most important moment in all of history.

Dennis: You believe that, today, we need to be preparing our homes and our hearts for Easter.

Barbara: Exactly. We think a lot about advent when it comes to Christmas—and about preparing our hearts to worship and to rejoice at Christmas—but we don’t do much of that for Easter. 

4:00

Now, there are those who practice Lent—who do some preparing of their hearts for the celebration of Easter—but it’s a much smaller proportion of the general population / it’s a very small portion of the Christian population. As a whole, we don’t do much to anticipate or prepare for the celebration of Easter.

Easter should be much more joyous / much more almost rambunctious of a celebration than Christmas is because we have so much to rejoice over because of what Christ did for us on the cross.

Bob: You didn’t grow up in a church tradition where Lent was a part of your practice; did you?

Barbara: That’s correct—I did not.

Dennis: Did you, Bob?

Bob: I didn’t either—although, in recent years, we’ve made it a part of our family’s personal practice—just for the reason that you mentioned—so that we can begin orienting our thinking / something that reminds us, in the weeks leading up to Easter, what it is we’re focusing on as we head toward the celebration of the resurrection. Have you started to engage in any of these Lenten practices yourself?

5:00

Barbara: Yes, we have. Dennis and I have talked about it. In fact, we created something for families to help families focus on preparing their hearts for Easter. We created a resource for families called The Messiah Mystery™, which helps families f...

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
Reclaiming Easter (Part 1) - The Miracle of Easter
Reclaiming Easter (Part 2) - Regaining the High Ground
Reclaiming Easter (Part 3) - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Easter

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.

Regaining the High Ground

Guest:                         Barbara Rainey        

From the series:       Reclaiming Easter (Day 2 of 4)

Air date:                     March 17, 2015

Bob: The cross is the universal symbol of the Christian faith; but through the years and in different countries, all around the world, there have been different styles of crosses that have represented Christianity. Barbara Rainey says, “That’s a good thing.”

Barbara: Jesus is universal—He’s not American / He’s not Western. He’s for everyone—from every tongue, and every tribe and every nation, from every era. I wanted to have crosses that were international—that sort of brought us back to the idea that Jesus is for all people, for all time. Christ has been pushing into country after country, around the world, since He left us. The message is continuing to go on into every nation and every language.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, March 17th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. This is the season of the year when all of us should be surveying the wondrous cross. We’ll talk on today’s program about how we can make the cross more central to our celebration of Easter. Stay tuned.

1:00

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition. The guy, who leads worship at our church, knows that, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, he is going to be leading two hymns: “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” and—

Dennis: I want to guess! It’s one of the Gettys’ songs.

Bob: No.

Dennis: Really!?

Bob: “We Gather Together.”

Dennis: But you’re kind of a Getty groupie.

Bob: I would not call me a groupie. [Laughter]

Dennis: A Getty groupie—that kind of has a sound to it; doesn’t it?

Bob: I am—I have a great appreciation for their work, and we sing a lot of their hymns in our worship service. But on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, it’s always “We Gather Together” and “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.”

2:00

The next Sunday, which is always the first Sunday of Advent, we always sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and we sing “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” You have to sing those on the first Sunday in Advent. 

On Palm Sunday, which is coming up, here in a couple of weeks—on Palm Sunday, we always sing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor, to Thee Redeemer King.” Do you remember that song? It’s about the kids and the palm branches. [Singing] “All glory, laud, and honor to Thee, Redeemer King!” Have you heard this?

Dennis: Vaguely.

Barbara: Yes!

Bob: [Singing] “…to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.” There is something about those traditions. Michael, the worship leader, is very gracious to indulge us older folks who say, “We have to sing these things.” [Laughter] There’s something about those traditions that are rich with meaning.

Barbara: That’s right.

Dennis: No doubt about it. And the voice you’re hearing say, “Amen,” over here is my wife, Barbara. 

3:00

Welcome back to the broadcast.

Barbara: Thank you.

Dennis: The most requested guest we have on FamilyLife Today. In fact—

Bob: Dennis requests you every time he can. He says, “Can we have Barbara on some more?” [Laughter]

Dennis: Yes! No doubt about it. [Laughter]

We’re all about Easter and wanting to regain the high ground—

Bob: Yes.

Dennis: —the holy ground for the Easter season. You’ve got a big idea, Barbara. It’s all about contrasting what Christmas is all about with Easter—just kind of calling families to focus on something really fresh and new this Easter season.

Barbara: Well, my big idea is that God would grant us the favor in helping us, as believers, raise our awareness of the importance of the holiday of Easter. We put so much energy, money, time, and effort into Christmas—and there’s nothing wrong with that—but, by comparison, we spend very little time, very little money, very little energy, and very little preparation to celebrate the greatest moment of history, which is Resurrection Sunday.

4:00

I’m hopeful that, over the course of time, as God grants favor, that we can help believers understand the importance of this holiday—the magnificence of what Christ has done for us—and then help them understand some new and fun ways that they can celebrate that day and make it meaningful because, as you just said, Bob, it’s their traditions that help tie those things to hearts. The more our kids understand the truth of why we celebrate / why we do what we do, the more it becomes embedded in their hearts and in their souls. They go: “This is important! This has to mean something; otherwise, Mom and Dad and the other adults wouldn’t have made such a big deal about it.”

Dennis: You know, we spend the entire month of December preparing for Christmas Day—it’s all about giving. You think we need to be spending the weeks, leading up to Easter, focusing on what theme around Easter?

Barbara: Focusing on the theme of forgiveness. 

5:00

Forgiveness is something we all need. We all need it, individually, because we all have offended God, at our core, because of our selfishness. We all, individually, need forgiveness. 

Every one of us needs forgiveness, and we need to understand how it works—we need to understand how to give it / how to grant it—we need to understand the whole process because, in relationships with people, we nee...