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Stepfamily life comes with unique challenges – and Laura Petherbridge understands them firsthand as both a stepdaughter and a stepmom. She addresses common questions about co-parenting, step-siblings, and what “blending” really looks like in everyday life. Drawing on her one-of-a-kind resource, Stepfamilies of the Bible, Laura shares timeless wisdom to encourage and equip your unique family.

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Overcome Common Challenges in Blended Families -- Join Smart Stepfamilies founder Ron Deal for this series of seven short videos. He’ll offer insightful, practical tips to help you and your loved ones experience harmony in your household.

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Is your faith driving your life, or is it just tagging along behind your comfort? Stop treating Christianity like a U-Haul trailer attached to the American Dream. Learn to seek the Kingdom first, stand firm against spiritual opposition, and build the daily habits that lay the foundation for your next major spiritual breakthrough.

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Would you like Jesus to heal you?  Then, ask Him.

The four Gospels detail approximately 36 miracles and reference even more.  Jesus changed water into wine, calmed more than one storm, restored sight to more than one blind man.  Yet Jesus never grandstanded his miraculous powers. He performed miracles for two reasons: to prove his identity and to help his people.

Can you imagine the testimonies? Imagine if you were a part of the crowd he fed, one of the dead he raised, or one of the sick he healed. The church exploded like a fire on a West Texas prairie. Why? Because Jesus healed people.

Why not let him heal you?  You can be sure that, in the right time and in the right way, Jesus will respond.

Read more God Is with You Every Day

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You moved. Your old friends are three states away. Your calendar's full, but your phone's pretty quiet. How to meet new people as an adult—and actually build friendships that last? FamilyLife president Luke Middendorf and his wife Kristina join Dave and Ann Wilson on FamilyLife Today to get real about starting over, awkward invitations, and the difference between having acquaintances and having people who know you.

Show Notes and Resources

• Restoring Your Spiritual Passion by Gordon MacDonald.
• Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald.

• Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
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Tired of doing what’s right without seeing the results?  Today on BOLD STEPS, Mark Jobe concludes his message on walking by faith and not by sight.  We’ll explore why our main goal should be pleasing God rather than people ... and how, like a swimmer who couldn’t see the shoreline, we can keep pushing toward a finish line that’s closer than we think.  Don’t give up now ... listen to Bold Steps with Pastor Mark Jobe.

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Visit or watch Mark Jobe at New Life Community Church

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It actually starts while men are still boys, “I’ll beat you!” It’s that innate desire in a male to compete, to conquer, to win. A girl is a conquest, a game is a conquest, a career or a business is a conquest. In Spanish, men were called conquistadors! Give them a challenge in their field or in their interest area, and they will work hard to conquer it. Now, that’s the good news. The bad news is that these conquerors, us guys, retreat when the challenge happens to be in a relationship.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Wimping Out or Winning at Home”

Our word for today from the Word of God, Genesis 16, and I’ll begin reading at verse 1. Abraham and Sarah, who are called Abram and Sarai, (their names had not yet been changed) are impatient, because the baby hasn’t come the one that God promised. “Now, Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children.’” Isn’t it interesting how the Lord always gets blamed for things that He really didn’t do. “Go sleep with my maidservant.” Say what?

Well, in their culture, it was sort of okay if you didn’t have a baby to have a surrogate mother. In this case, she picks her maidservant. “Perhaps I can build a family through her” she says. I should say it was okay in that culture. Nobody said it was okay with God. Listen to this part, “Abram agreed to what Sarai said.” Once again I go, “Say what?” “So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she was pregnant she began to despise her mistress, and Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.’” Wait, here we go again, WHAT? that’s curious. “I put my servant in your arms, she says, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

Now, notice how Abram steps up to leadership. “Your servant is in your hands, Dear. Do with her whatever you think best.” Great! “Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.” This is amazing! Abraham has been a conqueror! He launched out into a pagan country by faith, he’s fought for his nephew, Lot. He built a fortune, but he wimps out when it comes to family leadership. He should have said, “This is wrong hunny, I’ll handle this.” Instead, he does what a lot of men do. When it comes to conflict, when it comes to confrontation, he retreats.

See, the family is the ultimate test of manhood; not the football field, not the battlefield. Abram wanted to avoid confronting the issue, to avoid conflict. And man, did he get conflict. He got war between these two women eventually. This is so typical of us men. We have the courage to conquer, but not to confront. And all the tragedy, all the war that has come from Ishmael and Isaac - could that have been avoided if he had just said, “It’s wrong. I’ll handle it”?

You see him trying to avoid a problem, and He creates a much bigger problem: a bitter wife, an untamed son, God’s silence for 13 years, centuries of conflict. Listen, if you’re a man, it’s not an accident you happened to tune in today. God’s saying, “In your close relationships don’t be afraid to confront. Don’t put things off until there’s a crisis. You’re just creating a bigger crisis.”

See, it takes yielding to the Lordship of Christ to change in this area. Ask God for the courage to confront, even when you’re young, even when you’re single. Deal with issues while they’re small. Face the conflict; don’t try to bury it.

When a conqueror on the battlefront learns to be a confronter on the home front, now, he's really being a man.