It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of marriage. Sure, some marriages fail, some are toxic, and some are even deadly.

Still, there is nothing that has the power to build a person, a church, a community, or a nation like healthy marriages.

Thing is, they take work. Lots of hard work, on both sides. A lifetime of hard work buy two people growing closer to each other as they focus on growing closer to God.

Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen as we discuss how to stay married. It might be the hardest thing that any of us ever have to do in our life - but that might make it the most meaningful, rewarding, and impactful thing we ever do as well.

Flu season is almost over, but if you hurry, there’s just enough to catch the seasonal bug if you want. You have until the end of May, in case you're interested. There’s really a lot to be said for being sick. It forces you to slow down. It teaches you how to be sympathetic towards others when you’re well. It jump starts your body’s immune system, which needs a good workout every once in a while.

Of course, there are a lot of downsides as well. There are the obvious physical aches and pains, but there is also a more hidden (and sometimes sinister) impact that long-term illness can wreak on a family.

Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen, as we discuss the ups and downs of being sick. How we care for the boys at the ranch when they come down with something. How we counsel families who are fighting chronic and sometimes deadly diseases. And how, sometimes, God speaks through suffering, or what C.S. Lewis called, “the megaphone of pain

In part two of this special podcast dealing with school bullying, Axel, Brandon and Thomas share thoughts about the bullying problem, along with some simple, proven effective ways to address childhood bullying and some ideas about what could work as well.