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
Episode Transcript
Bob: Well, we’ve been listening as Barbara Rainey was sharing her heart with young wives and young moms in a get-together that she had awhile back.
Dennis: Moms need to be reminded of that from time to time.
Bob: Yes.
Dennis: They really do. It’s hard work to be a mom. There aren’t many times when the kids look up at you and say: “Mom, thank you! Thank you for changing my diaper. Thank you for the meals you prepare.” “Thank you for being my mom.”
Bob: “Thanks for that time-out you gave me today.”
Dennis: No! They wear you out. They emotionally wear you out; physically wear you out; mentally; spiritually. Barbara is right—if you do it the way the Bible talks about, it really is hard work; but it’s satisfying work, because you’re raising the next generation. You’re leaving a legacy of oak trees where others are going to enjoy the shade in future generations. It’s one of the great needs in our nation right now, Bob, to not lose sight of the power of a mother focused on her husband and her children.
21:00
Bob: In fact, Barbara talked to these moms about continuing to make your marriage a priority, even as you’re raising your children. That’s something that she speaks to in the book that you mentioned earlier that she has written, called Letters to My Daughters: The Art of Being a Wife. We’ve got copies of her book in our FamilyLife Today Resource Center. Our listeners can go to FamilyLifeToday.com to order a copy of Barbara’s book, or they can order by calling 1-800-FL-TODAY. So, again, the website is FamilyLifeToday.com; or call 1-800-358-6329; that’s 1-800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then the word, “TODAY.”
By the way, our team has put together a series of ten devotions for your family that we’re encouraging you to use on your FamilyLife app on your mobile device; or you can download it from our website at FamilyLifeToday.com—
22:00
—ten devotions designed to help you cultivate faith and courage in times that are unstable. If you’ve got the FamilyLife app, just pull up the “Help and Hope” section; and the devotion is found there. Or you can download the content at FamilyLifeToday.com.
And keep in mind the couples who are attending our Weekend to Remember® marriage getaways this weekend: Jacksonville, Florida, and Parsippany, New Jersey—hundreds of couples out for the weekend at a Weekend to Remember marriage getaway. In two weeks—it’s a big weekend—Louisville, Kentucky; Bellingham, Washington; South Padre Island; Cedar Rapids; Coeur de’ Laine; Destin, Florida; and Estes Park, Colorado. Great locations to attend a getaway weekend as a couple. If you’d like to find out more about the Weekend to Remember, go to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com.
Now, it was 15 years ago today, that Rochalle and Richard Brown became husband and wife. The Browns live in Upper Marlboro, Maryland; and they listen to WAVA.
23:00
They’ve been a part of our Stepfamily Summit in past years. Today—15 years as husband and wife. “Congratulations!” to the Browns and to any of you who are celebrating an anniversary today. Your anniversary matters. It matters to you; it matters to your kids; it matters to our culture
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Here, at FamilyLife, we want to thank those of you who partner with us so that more couples can experience more anniversaries and can thrive in the process. That’s what we’re all about, here at FamilyLife—building strong, healthy marriages and families who change the world one home at a time.
If you can help us with a donation today and be a part of the work that God is doing through this ministry, we’d love to say, “Thank you,” by sending you a banner that Barbara Rainey has created that declares that your home is an embassy of the kingdom of heaven. You can request that banner when you go to FamilyLifeToday.com and give an online donation, or call 1-800-FL-TODAY to donate over the phone. Or you can mail your donation to FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; our zip code is 72223.
24:00
And we hope you have a great weekend. I hope you and your family are able to worship together in your local church this weekend. Then, join us back on Monday when we’re going to talk with Juli Slattery about issues that women often face when it comes to marital intimacy and romance. She’s here with some thoughts and some suggestions. I hope you can be back for that as well.
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 will see you back [next time] for another edition of FamilyLife Today.
FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas.
Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.
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