
Engaged: Marriage Preparation
Don’t just plan a wedding. Prepare to be married.

Show Notes
- Find out more atfamilylife.com/blended
- Check out ourblended family resources.
- Listen to the full-lengthFamilyLife Blended podcast.
- Contact us, emailblended@familylife.com
About the Host

Ron Deal
Ron L. Deal is one of the most widely read and viewed experts on blended families in the country. He is Director of FamilyLife Blended® for FamilyLife®, founder of Smart Stepfamilies™, and the author and Consulting Editor of the Smart Stepfamily Series of books including the bestselling Building Love Together in Blended Families: The 5 Love Languages® and Becoming Stepfamily Smart (with Dr. Gary Chapman), The Smart Stepfamily: 7 Steps to a Healthy Family, and Preparing to Blend. Ron is a licensed marriage and family therapist, popular conference speaker, and host of the FamilyLife Blended podcast. He and his wife, Nan, have three sons and live in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn more at FamilyLife.com/blended.
Episode Transcript
FamilyLife Blended® Radio Transcript
References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.
Engaged: Marriage Preparation
Air date: January 17, 2025
Ron: Don’t just plan a wedding. Prepare to be married.
Announcer: For FamilyLife Blended®, here’s Ron Deal.
Ron: I know. I know. It’s perfectly natural for the romantically drunk, dopamine intoxicated, engaged couple to assume that married life is going to be fantastic. But believe it or not, anybody married longer than six months will tell you there is going to be some work involved in every great marriage. It starts here.
Learn all you can about stepfamily living. Read a book together. Or find a marriage mentor or get premarital counseling at your church. It can lower your risk of divorce by thirty percent. Yes, I said thirty percent. Don’t let the complexity of stepfamily living blindside your marriage. Be prepared for it. For FamilyLife Blended I’m Ron Deal.
Announcer: To find out more visit familylifeblended.com.
FamilyLife Blended with Ron Deal is a production of FamilyLife®.
We are so happy to provide these transcripts to you. However, there is a cost to produce them for our website. If you’ve benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider donating today to help defray the costs?
Visit http://www.familylifeblended.com/donate.
Copyright © 2025 FamilyLife®. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com