Barbara Rainey and Tracy Lane encourage families to read more this summer. Ron Deal shares strategies for dealing with the unique challenges a stepfamily faces.
When one of the two partners feels like an outsider, it doesn't just affect the family dynamics.
Stepfamilies are hard no matter what your circumstances were before remarriage. Here are seven practical steps for healthy relationships.
Your special needs stepfamily can find peace and stability with time and the right tools and perspective.
Lamar and Ronnie Tyler were fed up with pervasive negative images of black marriages in the media. So, the Tylers started their website, which promotes positive images of marriage and family in the black community.
Lisa Anderson reveals what it's like being a Christian single woman trying to date in this culture. Ron Deal gives advice to those who have been previously married and are ready to date again.
For stepfamilies, family meetings can build much needed family traditions, create memories, and establish a working family identity.
Counselor Ron Deal breaks down the most common and vexing issues facing remarried couples, as he provides real solutions and keen insights into the complexities of remarriage.
When it comes to the issues of marriage, according to blended family expert Ron Deal, remarried couples sail in a completely different ocean.
Jay and Tammy Daughtry and Ron Deal talk about co-parenting children of divorce in a way that leaves them happier and healthier.
Jay and Tammy Daughtry and Ron Deal talk about what's required to raise emotionally healthy children after a divorce.
Stepparenting has its challenges. That's what Jerry and Kate Angelo found out when they married and became a blended family of six.
Jerry and Kate Angelo reflect on the issues that thwarted their first marriages, and remember with gratitude the circumstances that brought them back to God and to each other.
Many couples travel to the “foreign country” of stepfamily living with little or no preparation.
Professor and youth minister Kara Powell shares some proven ideas for churches and parents that will help kids develop their own faith.
Youth expert Kara Powell talks about three phrases parents can implement that are especially helpful in building "sticky faith" in their kids.
We’ve all done it: We’ve all unjustly taken our anger against one person out on another. The question is, what do we do about it?
Despite doing all the right things in seemingly right circumstances, Rob and Rhonda Bugh struggled to make their remarriage work.
The simple events of everyday life can create hurt feelings and anger that send blended families down the road to isolation.
Gil and Brenda Stuart share how they experienced the pains and joys of remarriage.
A list of 34 questions to ask before the wedding.
The terms used to define and describe the blended family experience vary from person to person.
Blending family Christmas traditions is very challenging. Bob and Vicki Maday's respective daughters describe the uncomfortable but inevitable tension that exists in a new blended family's Christmas traditions.
Bob and Vicki Maday each had adult children when they got married. Bob and Vicki's adult daughters share the complicated emotions they had to wade through when their parents married and created a new blended family.
When you combine the practical challenges of money management with the complications of stepfamily living, money issues become volatile.
Helping adult stepchildren transition into a stepfamily
FamilyLife Blended™ is passionate about helping stepfamilies succeed.
The core method of stepfamily ministry is starting a class or small group of couples who come together to study and support one another.
Christian stepfamily adults are often caught in a holding pattern around God and His church, unable to touch down in His love.
While attempting to combine a new stepfamily, John and Diane were once again trying to accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Only their church wouldn't accept them.
If churches are going to remain strong, they must intentionally work to build smart stepfamilies.
Everyone agreed that stepparents should be acknowledged, but doing so was often awkward for the entire family.
I’m convinced that God uses the stepfamily experience to teach His children about choosing love.
When is it time for stepfamilies and stepparents to graduate to the next stage of life? When is it time for them to stop viewing their relationships as new?
Are you wondering what is going on in your stepchild's mind? Some stepchildren are here to tell you about their blended experience. Josh and Emily Gangl and Jenifer Thigpen tell their stories.
Feeling like stepparenting is just not your thing? Laura Petherbridge, and Gordon Taylor are here to offer hope. Laura and Gordon tell their stories and offer advice for blended families.
Robbie and Sabrina McDonald join Ron Deal and talk about the good and bad surprises they experienced as they were establishing their blended family.
Sabrina and Robbie McDonald married quickly but didn't take into account the grief her young son was still experiencing since his father's death. Ron Deal explains how children grieve.
It was difficult for Sabrina to keep the promise to her late husband, to remarry after his death. But today she is Sabrina McDonald. Her new husband, Robbie, joins her to tell their story.
Pastor Dave Wilson recalls one of his Sunday sermons when he publicly apologized to the broken and blended families in his congregation for the church's weak attempts to reach out to them.
Blended families take up a fair share of the pew space in our local churches today. Dennis Rainey shares a message to illustrate how all of us, as Christians, are a part of God's blended family.
Even after we were divorced, my husband pursued me.
If you haven't dealt with your previous marriage, it's never too late. Taking the time to heal may be the most important thing you do for your second marriage.
When Darryl Smith began calling his ex-wife Gwen, she just laughed. "You got me once. You won't get me twice."
Discover your relational strengths and identify areas where you can grow in your marriage relationship.
Kyle and Jamie Soucie had been married before. This time, they figured, things would work out “happily ever after.”
Developing a good relationship with a spouse and a stepchild
Stepfamilies are especially vulnerable to parental favoritism
Being a stepmom is hard. Stepmoms Laura Petherbridge, Gayle Grace and Heather Hetchler offer their very best advice for becoming the best stepmom you can be.
What's the biggest mistake couples make when trying to blend a family? Stepmoms Laura Petherbridge, Heather Hetchler and Gayla Grace, share their perspective on this question and more.
