CrossCurrent Podcasts

Too often, our entire healthcare system is designed to chase symptoms, not solutions. We numb the pain, mask the problem, and patch the visible cracks—rarely pausing to dig for the real reason something is wrong. But what if this approach is quietly failing our children and families, creating lifelong challenges where there could have been correction and healing?

In this memorable episode of Christian Parent/Crazy World, host Catherine pulls back the curtain on one of the most overlooked arenas where symptom-chasing can rob families of true wellness: our children’s oral and airway health during sleep. Bringing practical wisdom, expert insight, and personal experience, Catherine is joined by Dr. Kallie Hale—one of the country’s leading dentists specializing in dental sleep medicine and airway health.

Free Dental Airway Assessment: Visit www.toothpillow.com/cpcw and use CODE: CPCW to get a free upgrade that includes a full video assessment, a $50 value.

Meet the Guest:
Dr. Kallie Hale is the co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer of The Airway Dentists and the founder of Tooth Pillow, a teledentistry platform helping families nationwide address airway-related root causes of health issues. With a national speaking career and a passion for pediatric sleep-disordered breathing, Dr. Hale has made it her mission to change how dentistry and medicine care for children’s well-being—by getting to the source of symptoms rather than merely managing them.

Episode Highlights & Key Insights:

• The “duct tape” problem in medicine and parenting: Many health challenges—headaches, poor sleep, crooked teeth, even mental health—are met with short-term remedies rather than curiosity about their origins (Catherine, 03:38).

• Oral health, airway function, and your child’s future: Dr. Hale describes how issues like crooked teeth, mouth breathing, tooth grinding, and even bedwetting can signal deep-seated airway problems that affect not just dental aesthetics, but growth, learning, and emotional health (Dr. Hale, 12:00).

• Rethinking orthodontics: For generations, standard dental practice has started “too late,” waiting until adolescence to straighten teeth and sometimes extracting healthy teeth—while missing the root cause: underdeveloped jaw and airway structures. Dr. Hale urges, “The way we do our orthodontic treatment on our children now will determine how they live for the rest of their life, and how they age.” (Dr. Kallie Hale, 13:41)

• Signs parents can’t afford to ignore: Grinding, snoring, chronic tiredness, allergies, dark under-eye circles, and persistent bedwetting are early warning lights on the dashboard. “That’s your check engine light,” warns Dr. Hale.

• From symptom to solution: Tooth Pillow—a simple, child-friendly appliance—offers early, gentle intervention that addresses the root of airway-related dental and sleep struggles, and their virtual platform means families everywhere can access screening and help.

• Spiritual parallels: Just like in health, our faith calls us to look below the surface—not just masking the manifest struggles but seeking the deeper heart issues, trusting God to reveal the true diagnosis and pathway to healing.

Catherine shares personal anecdotes—her own long path through dental fixes, her children’s struggles, and the frustration of being offered “duct tape” solutions, never a path to wholeness. Dr. Hale vulnerably discusses what it cost her to become a voice for root-cause medicine in a profession slow to change, and how she’s equipping parents to “challenge the narrative” in everything—from their dentist’s advice to the way they advocate for their children’s health and future.

In The Problem of the Devil in Cappadocian Thought (Cambridge UP, 2026), Gabrielle Thomas questions the popular assumption that the devil served as the primary explanation for evil, sin, and suffering as early Christians grappled with all that is wrong in the world. Interrogating the status of the devil in the teachings of the Cappadocians – Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Macrina the Younger – she identifies their points of agreement, that the devil is a fallen angel, and disagreement, notably how Christ defeated him, his continued existence, and his ultimate end. In her investigation, Thomas engages fourth-century Christian thought in conversation with ancient philosophy, ancient history, classics, and biblical studies. She demonstrates how the Cappadocians negotiated myriad philosophical, theological, and spiritual problems with the devil. Thomas argues that the devil is not simply a strategy for explaining the problem of evil. Rather, the devil himself is the problem.

New Books in Late Antiquity is Presented by Ancient Jew Review

Gabrielle Thomas, an Anglican priest, is Dean and President of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Early Christian, Anglican, and Theological Studies at Yale Divinity School. She is the author of The Image of God in the Theology of Gregory of Nazianzus and For the Good of the Church: Unity, Theology, and Women and co-editor of Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church.

Michael Motia teaches in Classics and Religious Studies at Umass Boston

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Michelle Ablard was content with her life as a schoolteacher, with 3 dogs and a mortgage. But then God nudged her into foster care, which began an unlikely journey of fostering two kids from her school and eventually adopting them. Michelle simply obeyed God’s prompting and credits her community of friends and family who made her miracle family possible!

Receive a copy of the "Faith Builds a Family" bundle and an audio download of "How Foster Care Brought Me My Miracle Family" for your donation of any amount! Plus, receive member-exclusive benefits when you make a recurring gift today. Your monthly support helps families thrive.

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Part of honoring human exceptionalism is to honor work.  

__________

For more resources visit breakpoint.org. 

35 years ago this month Chuck Colson started the Breakpoint commentary. Two notable deaths this week; Gloria Steinem and Wendell Berry. And a new study suggests that our 5th graders are not alright.

Segment 1 – 35 Years of Breakpoint and the Deaths of Gloria Steinem and Wendell Berry

• Beyond Strange Bedfellows

• The Genesis of Gender by Abigail Favale

Segment 2 – Meta's Record Settlement; Mental Health Crisis in Children

• Meta Settlement

• Mental Health study

Parents have an incredible responsibility to disciple their children.

But that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to do it alone.

In fact, one of the dangers Christian families can face—especially homeschool families—is allowing responsibility to slowly become self-sufficiency.

We educate our children. We organize activities. We teach the Bible. We create community.

Before long, we can begin acting as though our family is sufficient by itself.

But that’s not the picture of Christianity we see in Scripture.

The New Testament is filled with commands about how believers are to live together.

Love one another.

Honor one another.

Serve one another.

Bear one another’s burdens.

Encourage one another.

Forgive one another.

Pray for one another.

Those commands assume something important: Christianity is inherently relational.

You simply can’t “one another” yourself.

God has given parents the primary responsibility for discipling their children, but He has also placed believers within the body of Christ.

And our children need that body too.

One of the great gifts of a healthy church is that it surrounds our children with Christians at many different stages of life.

Your children need to see what following Jesus looks like at 25.

At 45.

At 65.

At 85.

They need to see faithful Christians walking through marriage, parenting, work, loss, suffering, service and old age.

They need people outside their immediate family who know them, pray for them, encourage them and have watched them grow.

Those relationships may seem insignificant while our children are young. Years later, we often discover just how significant they really were.

Being present is important, but biblical community goes much deeper than occupying a pew each week.

A healthy church gives your family opportunities to know and be known.

To serve.

To encourage.

To pray.

To bear burdens.

To learn from believers in other generations.

And your children need to understand that they aren’t simply consumers of church programs. They are part of the body too.

Give them opportunities to serve.

Let them work alongside adults.

Help them learn people’s names and stories.

Let them see that their presence and gifts matter.

As you consider your family’s relationship with your church, start here:

Make gathering with God’s people a genuine priority.

Our children learn what we value not simply from what we tell them, but from the choices they watch us make.

Every child experiences big emotions. As a parent, you want to teach them what to do when those feelings come. Counselor Eliza Huie equips you with practical ways to help your child move from chaos to calm while reminding them that God is always with them. You’ll learn a simple, grace-filled approach to emotional regulation that can help your whole family navigate big emotions with greater peace and confidence.

Receive a copy of the "Count Yourself Calm" bundle and an audio download of "Five Steps to Building Your Kids Emotional Health" for your donation of any amount! Plus, receive member-exclusive benefits when you make a recurring gift today. Your monthly support helps families thrive.

Get more episode resources 

Do you have a story or comment on how Focus on the Family impacted you or your family? Leave a message for Jim Daly!

If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, please give us your feedback.