FamilyLife Blended® on Oneplace.com

Ron Deal speaks with Gayla Grace about her new book, Beautifully Blended: 101 Devotions to Encourage Couples in Blended Families. This book offers support and advice with relatable anecdotes, along with a devotion, prayer, and Bible reading for each day.Every day dynamics in blended families are addressed with answers to common situations that often create struggle, such as stepparenting, co-parenting, marital conflict, and challenges in relationship-building. Grace offers practical tips that provide hope for blended families by encouraging them to trust God, seek His wisdom, persevere through challenges, offer grace freely and often, count their blessings, and recognize God’s redeeming power in relationships. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

In-law relationships can be delicate and challenging, especially when they involve a former spouse. Ron Deal speaks with Dave and Ashley Willis about how to prevent feelings of powerlessness and frustration as we build bridges, not battlegrounds, in difficult relationships. Establishing healthy boundaries can safeguard our mental health and encourage healing from past wounds. Honest conversations convey respect—even when relationships are full of tension. Grace-filled discussions that reflect our ability to see the best in others and extend forgiveness when we’ve been wronged allow God’s love to reach hardened hearts.God wants to redeem relationships, and as we do our part with difficult in-law relationships, God will honor our efforts. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Ron Deal and Gayla Grace answer questions from Blended Blessed, such as: how do I manage tug of war feelings between my spouse and my children; how do I talk to my teenager who doesn't want me to remarry after his dad died; what are common ghosts of marriage past and how do we cope with them, how do we effectively place limits on screen time and hold the boundaries in our home when the other home has no limits; how do I calm my heart as a stepmom when my adult stepchild is rejecting me and what steps can I take to help, and many more. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Blake Hudspeth grew up in multiple stepfamilies as a result of death divorce and described his family to Ron Deal as pieced together. As a result, he struggled with complicated emotions and unresolved wounds well into adulthood.Now, Hudspeth wants to help others who’ve grown up in complex blended family dynamics learn how to reconcile a difficult upbringing with hope for the future. He understands how to grieve a family he wanted but didn't have and the importance of forgiving his parents for their part in the instability of his upbringing, which created distrust and uncertainty for him. He advises parents that one of the most important pieces in helping their kids who are growing up blended is simply acknowledging the pain they are carrying. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Guidance and hope for blending families can be found in stories from scripture. Ron Deal talks with Laura Petherbridge about her latest book, Stepfamilies of the Bible: Timeless Wisdom for Blended Families. Through true stories of God's heroes from stepfamilies of biblical times, Petherbridge offers practical tools to build unity, overcome complexity, foster love, and create lasting relationships for today's blended families. Through families such as David's, a man after God's own heart, and Joseph's, the favored son of Jacob, we learn how God can use sin done to us and sin done by us for His glory, and redeem relationships, regardless of how messy and broken they are. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Divorce and the death of a spouse naturally bring grief. But we don't always recognize the grief our kids also carry after walking through hard circumstances. Ron Deal talks with Stanley Mryna Brown on how they navigated grief when they married. Stanley had lost his first wife to cancer, later remarried briefly, then divorced. Myrna had also been through a divorce and was a single mom for ten years before marrying Stanley. They both had two children who struggled with their own grief and loss. Through counseling, Stanley and Myrna began to understand more about their children’s grief and how to help them work through the unique grief each of them carried, allowing relationship building within the family to more easily develop. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Every blended family navigates common stages on their way to finding familyness. It's not uncommon to experience the questioning stage, where you begin to doubt if you've made the right decision about your newly blended family, and you take a detour or two as you navigate your circumstances. Or perhaps you get stuck along the way as you walk through a crisis together. And what about the rewards stage? Wondering if you’ll ever get to that one?Gayla Grace shares the six stages of stepfamily development, how to navigate each stage well, and what it takes to build loving, connected relationships along the way. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Good co-parenting with a former spouse helps our kids navigate life in two homes with greater ease. Ron Deal's conversation with Jay and Tammy Daughtry teaches us how to be parental partners, not angry associates, through a businesslike relationship. "Good co-parenting with a former spouse helps kids navigate life in two homes with greater ease. Ron Deal's conversation with Jay and Tammy Daughtry teaches us how to be parental partners, not angry associates, as we compartmentalize the pain from divorce and manage co-parenting through a businesslike relationship. They emphasized the importance of congenial handoffs during the parental exchange, biological time spent with biological parents/kids, recognizing unrealistic expectations of former spouse relationships, reframing sensitive days on the calendar to minimize emotional landmines, and understanding two dynamics often at play:Bio fog—when a deep connection between biological parents and kids creates fog with the parent, who then often tolerates misbehavior.Step vision—when an objective stepparent quickly identifies shortfalls in stepchildren and often communicates them harshly. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Dr. John Townsend defines four essential character traits that individuals need to navigate life's challenges and demands. He shares with Ron Deal that these components are required for stronger relationships. We can help our children and stepchildren develop them and be resilient kids. 1) Attachment: the ability to trust and be vulnerable with others 2) Separation: the ability to have your own voice, which includes healthy boundary-setting 3) Integration: navigating both the positive and negative realities of life 4) Adulthood: the capacity to take responsibility, make sound decisions, and live a purposeful life. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Jayla explains how her position as a “Daddy’s girl” and her relationship with her own mother impacted her desire for a bonus mom. She didn’t respond well to Jessica’s nurturing, and tension escalated as she got older. In time, Jessica began to understand the complexity of their relationship, change her expectations, and parent Jayla differently. Slowly, their relationship moved toward understanding and love toward one another. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29?v=20251111

Tim and Olivia Smith brought six kids into their blended family in 1997. In their conversation with Ron Deal, they share the joys and challenges of melding together two families, how to encourage relationship building between siblings, and how stepparents can move from a place of isolation to a place of belonging in a stepfamily.Tim’s daughter, Christie, joins the conversation with her perspective as a teenager from the early years of their blended family. Although the stepmom—stepdaughter relationship is often the hardest to connect, Christie shares how Olivia’s small actions of moving toward her and allowing her to engage at her own pace created a loving, long-lasting relationship that she treasures today as an adult. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29

Robert and Jennie Lord both grew up in blended families. They share their stories with Ron Deal about the residue left behind from the maze of parental divorce, multiple stepparents, challenges in relationship building, unwanted transitions, and ongoing instability. They’ve sought healing from those experiences and now want to share what they’ve learned with others.Married with a family of their own, they are committed to their marriage and want to provide an upbringing for their children that is vastly different than what they experienced. They teach and model a life built on faith and seek to provide stability and build strong bonds with their children. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29

Jennifer Maggio shares her story with Ron Deal of her challenges as a single mom that propelled her to begin a national ministry, serving over 1,000,000 single moms. Now married in a blended family, she continues the mission that no single mom walk alone. "Jennifer Maggio was a mom to two at 19 years old and stayed in an abusive relationship longer than she should have because of shame. She later became a single mom and understands those challenges, which often include poverty, depression, dysfunction, and emotional pain. She now leads a national ministry for single moms with a desire that no single mom should walk alone." To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29

Dr. Alison Cook What do you do with feelings like anger, jealousy, hurt, or rejection in your blended family? Listen to Ron Deal’s conversation with Dr. Alison Cook, who offers a three-step process to work through hard feelings and find healing and hope for your journey. "Is it okay to admit when we feel hurt, rejected, lonely, jealous, mad, or experience other hard feelings in our blended family? What do we do with those feelings so we don’t allow them to control us? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29

Parenting a prodigal creates pain and helplessness as we seek to navigate difficult relationships. Listen to Ron Deal’s conversation with Judy Douglass, a prodigal parent, on how to tenderly manage these tenuous relationships while staying calm, present, and patient in rebuilding a relationship on their terms.Douglass and Deal discuss the Prodigal Son story in Luke and the parallels with our prodigals in opening our arms to them when appropriate but not chasing or threatening in any way with our behavior. We move toward the goal of gaining influence as we patiently work to bring back love and trust in our relationships. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1186/29