About the Guest
Barbara Rainey
Barbara Rainey is a wife, mother of six adult children (plus three sons-in-law and two daughters-in-law), and “Mimi” to nineteen grandchildren.
After graduating from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, Barbara joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1971. She and her husband, Dennis, whom she married in 1972, are co-founders of FamilyLife, a ministry of Cru that is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Barbara has published articles on family-related topics and is the author of Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember and When Christmas Came. She speaks at FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember® marriage conferences and is a frequent guest on FamilyLife Today®, a nationally syndicated, daily radio program. She and Dennis are the coauthors of several books, including Growing a Spiritually Strong Family, Starting Your Marriage Right, Moments Together for Couples, The New Building Your Mate’s Self-Esteem, Parenting Today’s Adolescent, Rekindling the Romance, and Moments with You. She co-authored A Mother’s Legacy with her daughter, Ashley Rainey Escue and joined Dennis and their children Rebecca and Samuel on the book So You’re About To Be A Teenager. Barbara has also co-authored Barbara and Susan’s Guide to the Empty Nest, with close friend Susan Yates, and A Symphony in the Dark, written with her daughter, Rebecca Rainey Mutz. And Barbara has written a series focusing on character traits for families, including the titles Growing Together in Gratitude, Growing Together in Courage, Growing Together in Forgiveness, and Growing Together in Truth.
Having faithfully served alongside Dennis for more than 30 years, both in ministry and at home, Barbara has recently launched a new endeavor called Ever Thine Home™. This new line of products, including Christ centered ornaments for Christmas, teaching tools for Lent and Easter, and beautiful additions for your home for thanksgiving and year round makes it easy to express faith at home in a way that is both biblical and beautiful. Her heart for Ever Thine Home is based on the familiar Old Testament instruction:
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:9, ESV)
You can read more about Barbara’s work at EverThineHome.com.
Find Barbara online on:
Twitter @BarbaraRainey and Facebook facebook.com/raineybarbara
Karen Loritts
Karen Loritts is a speaker, teacher, and author. Karen has served in ministry since 1972 with her husband, Crawford, who is currently the Senior Pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia. Karen served as the keynote speaker for the True Woman conferences held by Revive Our Hearts. Karen and Crawford are also featured speakers at FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember marriage conferences. Karen enjoys her four grown children and eleven grandchildren.
Episode Transcript
Bob: I think it would be appropriate for you to thank the Lord and express your appreciate to these women for what they’ve shared with us this morning.
19:00
Would you do that? [Applause] Thank you, ladies.
[Studio]
Dennis: Well what we’ve been listening to is a panel by my wife Barbara and Karen Loritts, Dr. Crawford Loritts’ wife in Roswell Georgia.
Bob, you have a quote that you really like, that I like as well, that Karen was just talking about there. You know what I’m talking about; don’t you?
Bob: Yes. It’s Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I can’t quote it exactly; but he said: “Our biggest problem today is we spend more time listening to ourselves than we do talking to ourselves.” Instead of probing and saying, “What am I feeling?” and “What am I anxious about?” we should be counseling our own soul. We should be speaking the truth to ourselves, and believing it, and then doing it, as Karen said.
Dennis: Yes. What I would just say to wives today: “You really need to have a source of wisdom from other women, who are a lap or two ahead of you in the race of life—
20:00
—mature women, who have followed Jesus Christ for a couple of decades, and can speak into your life about being a woman, a wife, a mom, and helping you be wise about it. If necessary be counter-cultural.
Bob: By the way, we’re going to dig up that quote exactly, and we’ll put it on our website at FamilyLifeToday.com and put it on our Facebook® page as well for folks who want to see the quote.
What you’re talking about is exactly the reason why a lot of young wives are picking up a copy of Barbara’s book, Letters to My Daughters, and gleaning the wisdom from an older woman—a wife who’s been married for more than four decades, who can offer some wise counsel about how you live out your marriage and about how you thrive in it.
Dennis: Yes. I think Proverbs 31 always is used as a descriptor of a godly woman—
21:00
—verse 25 and 26: “Strength and dignity are her clothing. She laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”
Bob, I think that’s what Barbara did when she kind of opened her heart and put it between two covers of a book and advised women—really, with wisdom and with kindness—“How do you help your husband? How do you come alongside him and believe in him / encourage him? If necessary, speak the truth to him at times when he really needs to hear it; but be a cheerleader / be on his team.” I just don’t think there are that many voices in younger women’s lives today who are speaking into their lives with that kind of wisdom and kindness that Proverbs 31 talks about.
Bob: Of course, this month, we have been making Barbara’s book available to any listener who is interested in getting a copy.
22:00
We’re asking that you would consider making a donation in support of the ministry. As you make that donation, we’d like to invite you to request a copy of Letters to My Daughters: The Art of Being a Wife by Barbara Rainey. You can go online to make a donation at FamilyLifeToday.com. Or you can call 1-800-FL-TODAY—make a donation in support of this ministry. Or you can mail your donation to FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; the zip code is 72223. Be sure, when you get in touch with us, to let us know you’d like a copy of Barbara’s book. We won’t send that out automatically when you send a donation—you’ll need to let us know that you’d like a copy of the book.
Let me just say—your financial support is critical. Without it, we could not do all that we do, here at FamilyLife. This daily radio program is dependent on folks, like you, helping to support the ministry. “Thanks,” in advance, for whatever you’re able to do as you make a donation today.
23:00
Be sure to ask for a copy of Barbara’s book when you get in touch with us.
Let me wrap up here by saying, “Happy Anniversary!” to Raul and Gloria Ochoa in Casa Grande, Arizona. Today, they celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary / got married back in ‘77. “Congratulations!” to the Ochoas.
We are big on anniversaries, here at FamilyLife. We believe that it is strong healthy intact marriages, like the Ochoas, that make for a strong healthy society. We are the Proud Sponsor of Anniversaries™. In fact, we would love to make this year’s anniversary for you and your spouse your best anniversary ever. We have some ideas / some suggestions we’ll share with you. Just go online at FamilyLifeToday.com and give us your anniversary date and your email address or your text number. We’ll send you some suggestions about 30 days before your anniversary rolls around so you can have an extra special anniversary in 2016.
24:00
With that, we’ve got to wrap things up for today. Thanks for being with us. Hope you have a great weekend. Hope you and your family are able to worship together this weekend in church.
I hope you can join us back on Monday. We’re going to talk about some of the things—you’ve heard, as a mom / you’ve been told, as a mom—that just aren’t true / things you may be believing about being a mom that don’t square up with what the Bible says. We’ll talk about that Monday. Hope you can tune in for that.
I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I’m Bob Lepine. We’ll see you back Monday for another edition of FamilyLife Today.
FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas.
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