Focus on the Family

I'm John Fuller here with Dr. Greg Smalley and his wife, Dr. Erin Smalley.

They lead our marriage department, and we're going to begin with a pretty sobering conversation that Focus on the Family president Jim Daly had with Darby Strickland about identifying abuse and knowing when to step in.

Other times, and this is much more common, you're living under a climate of coercive control and any one behavior, just think of that, if a husband is ignoring his wife, is it abuse? We don't know.

Did he just have a hard day at work, right? So we have to look at how that behavior is functioning in the relationship.

The link is in the show notes.

Well, next time we'll hear from Ryan and Selena Frederick talking about the importance of vulnerability in their marriage and how that's strengthened their relationship.

On behalf of Greg and Erin Smalley and the entire team, I'm John Fuller, and thanks for joining us for the Focus on the Family Marriage Podcast.

Your church comes to you each week to fill their cup.

I'm Paul Acy for PluggedIn.

I focus on the family.

I mean, of course, your organization is a great resource for parents.

Focus on the Family has a lot of great articles and information.

The Colson Center is solid.

They have an identity project, which is amazing.

to bring our grandchildren here.

Ted Cunningham is our guest today on Focus on the Family, sharing his hopes for many family memories to be happening around the dinner table for years to come.

Your host is Focus president Jim Daly.

I'm John Fuller.

And Ted is the founding

pastor of Woodland Hills Family Church in Branson, Missouri.

He and his wife, Amy, have two children, and we recorded a conversation you had, Jim, with Ted when he was here just recently at Focus on the Family.

Ted, welcome back to Focus on the Family.

I moved out there.

And when I got out there, it was paradigm rattling for me to the point, Warwick, that I called my old bosses back at Focus on the Family and asked if I could come back in the first three days.

Because I was just so terrified and so convinced that this was the wrong choice to make.

All those things that I did...

You knew it was a good opportunity.

In a good company, the bosses seemed reasonable.

You knew I have made a rational decision to leave Focus on the Family and go to Hollywood.

It's rational.

I moved out there.

And when I got out there, it was paradigm rattling for me to the point, Warwick, that I called my old bosses back at Focus on the Family and asked if I could come back in the first three days.

Because I was just so terrified and so convinced that this was the wrong choice to make.

All those things that I did...

You knew it was a good opportunity.

In a good company, the bosses seemed reasonable.

You knew I have made a rational decision to leave Focus on the Family and go to Hollywood.

It's rational.

There were some real challenges.

Even before 9-11, there were some real challenges because what had happened was WYLL, which was the Christian Teach and Talk radio station, and that basically means it's a format with lots of pastors on it, like National Ministries, Focus on the Family, and Alistair Begg with Truth for Life, and Dr. Charles Stanley with InTouch, and Chuck Swindoll with Insight for Living.

All of these people that kind of make up the programming of that radio station.

And that had been at 106.7 FM.

And that has made all the difference, because sometimes we find our future, and sometimes our future finds us.

For more to help you thrive, go to FocusOnTheFamily.com. I'm Jim Daly.

I think what you added to start this off so perfectly explains how CT got here because they took something that honestly hits home for me because one of my great mentors, Somebody I very much was, honestly, his book changed my life, Tom Minnery, his book, Why You Can't Stay Silent.

He was the former vice president of Focus on the Family.

He was the first news director at Christianity Today.

He worked for Billy Graham.