FamilyLife Today®

Making friends as an adult is hard. Making friends after you've been hurt? Even harder. Besides, everyone's busy, tired, overscheduled, and heading home. Author Jennie Allen explores why meaningful relationships often get squeezed out by modern life—and why waiting for community to happen usually doesn't work. If your friendships feel stuck in the group-text stage, Jennie stands ready to talk candidly about disappointment, betrayal, and the temptation to stay guarded. After all, what if protecting yourself is also keeping you lonely?
Show Notes and Resources
Get Jennie's book "Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World" on our shop.

Learn more about Jennie on her website jennieallen.com

Get more information about the IF:Gathering

Janelle Breitenstein’s 5-session video series on mom anger at familylife.com/momanger

Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
Follow us on all social platforms: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Find resources from our podcast at shop.familylife.com.
Download FamilyLife's app!
Help others find FamilyLife. Leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Check out all the FamilyLife's podcasts on the FamilyLife Podcast Network
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You've got group texts, social feeds, work friends, church friends, and hundreds of contacts in your phone. So why does it still feel like nobody really knows you? Author Jennie Allen talks about the loneliness hiding in plain sight—and why Christian community takes more than proximity, good intentions, or another potluck.
Show Notes and Resources
Get Jennie's book "Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World" on our shop.

Learn more about Jennie on her website jennieallen.com

Get more information about the IF:Gathering

Janelle Breitenstein’s 5-session video series on mom anger at familylife.com/momanger

Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
Follow us on all social platforms: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Find resources from our podcast at shop.familylife.com.
Download FamilyLife's app!
Help others find FamilyLife. Leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Check out all the FamilyLife's podcasts on the FamilyLife Podcast Network
See cru.org/us/en/about/privacy FamilyLife’s Privacy Policy

Everybody loves a comeback story. A marriage saved. A relationship restored. But what happens when the divorce actually happens? Vaneetha Risner, author of "This Was Never the Plan: Walking with God through the Heartache of Divorce", talks honestly about the lies, shame, and second-guessing that can follow a broken marriage—and why healing starts when you stop trying to rewrite the past. If you're carrying grief, disappointment, or questions that don't have easy answers, this conversation won't talk down to you.
Show Notes and Resources
Learn more about Vaneetha and find her book "This Was Never the Plan: Walking With God Through the Heartache of Divorce" at vaneetha.com

Janelle Breitenstein’s 5-session video series on mom anger at familylife.com/momanger

Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
Follow us on all social platforms: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Find resources from our podcast at shop.familylife.com.
Download FamilyLife's app!
Help others find FamilyLife. Leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Check out all the FamilyLife's podcasts on the FamilyLife Podcast Network
See cru.org/us/en/about/privacy FamilyLife’s Privacy Policy

"I don't want a divorce." For many people, that sentence comes long before the papers are signed. Vaneetha Risner, author of "This Was Never the Plan: Walking with God through the Heartache of Divorce", shares her journey through an unwanted divorce, the shame that often follows in Christian circles, and the struggle to trust God when life falls apart anyway. If you're tired of pretending you're fine—or carrying pain that feels impossible to explain—Vaneetha meets you there.
Show Notes and Resources
Learn more about Vaneetha and find her book "This Was Never the Plan: Walking With God Through the Heartache of Divorce" at vaneetha.com

Janelle Breitenstein’s 5-session video series on mom anger at familylife.com/momanger

Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
Follow us on all social platforms: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Find resources from our podcast at shop.familylife.com.
Download FamilyLife's app!
Help others find FamilyLife. Leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Check out all the FamilyLife's podcasts on the FamilyLife Podcast Network
See cru.org/us/en/about/privacy FamilyLife’s Privacy Policy

Perfectionism in marriage can make home feel more like a performance review than a relationship. On FamilyLife Today, Dave and Ann Wilson talk with Portia Collins about the pressure to get everything right—and the freedom that comes when undeserved kindness replaces relentless effort. Through humor, honesty, and the book of Galatians, Portia shares how walking by the Spirit reshapes marriage, parenting, and the exhausting habit of keeping score.
Show Notes and Resources
Host a high-impact church event without starting from scratch by using code STRONGFAMILIES between June 16–30 to get a FREE video-based study and planning support when you buy 10+ workbooks go to shop.familylife.com
Find out more about Portia on her website: portiacollins.com
Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
Follow us on all social platforms: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Find resources from our podcast at shop.familylife.com.
Download FamilyLife's app!
Help others find FamilyLife. Leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Check out all the FamilyLife's podcasts on the FamilyLife Podcast Network
See cru.org/us/en/about/privacy FamilyLife’s Privacy Policy