Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk

Carrie Wilkerson was over $100,000 in debt and 145 pounds overweight. Because she had been inattentive to details in her business and with her health, both had gotten out of control. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson and Ms. Wilkerson, the author of The Barefoot Executive, discuss how she paid off every dime within two years by working at home and dropped down to a healthy weight by practicing discipline. Her counsel? Brainstorm a home business with your God-given skill sets instead of chasing other people’s dreams.

Carrie Wilkerson experienced a conflict that mothers often face. With two newly-adopted preschoolers, she felt conflicted, or "mom-flicted," about going back to a traditional "9 to 5" job and leaving her kids in daycare. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson sits down with Carrie, author of The Barefoot Executive, to discuss how she managed to stay home with her kids and earn valuable income by using her laptop. She learned how to use her God-given skill sets and make money during their nap time and nighttime.

People who delve into gambling sometimes find it’s a seductive path fraught with greed and compulsion. Those same people often struggle with depression or anxiety. In turn, alcohol and drug use can manifest with the gambler as a form of coping. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson talks with Kristen Haflett, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in gambling addictions. They discuss how 87% of gambling addicts who seek recovery can "fall off the wagon." While the odds are against them, with God, recovery is possible.

Ten million Americans are crippled by their gambling addiction. Whether they waste their money in the casinos, on lottery tickets, or with online sports betting, it’s a social cancer that is rapidly spreading to the next generation. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson sits down with Kristen Haflett, a licensed social worker who specializes in gambling addictions. They are joined by Ryan Dobson, Dr. Dobson’s son, who adds his insight on addiction and families in peril. Together, they examine how this $255-billion-per-year industry preys upon the least fortunate by exploiting one of man’s most common sins, the love of money.

Today’s young women have been deceived. They’ve been told, especially by social media influencers, that the key to happiness is self-love. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Allie B. Stuckey, author of You’re Not Enough (And That’s Okay), reveals that her time feeding from the lie of self-empowerment left her battling anorexia, bulimia, and shame. Once you exchange the god of self with the God of Scripture, you’ll experience a Heaven-sent sacrificial love that will remove your narcissism.

When people hurt us, our sinful instinct is to hurt them back. But on today’s edition of Family Talk, the late Dr. Arch Hart says, "Forgiveness is giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me." The former dean of the School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary warns that if we don’t forgive, we foolishly allow resentment to fester. And resentment is a cancer of the emotions that can destroy us! The key to forgiving someone is to remember God’s unfathomable forgiveness of our own sin.

For 30 years, convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell operated as a licensed doctor and abortion provider, running a clinic in West Philadelphia that was nothing short of a house of horrors. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson sits down with filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, the couple behind the 2017 movie entitled Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer. They discuss the heart behind the film and the impact it is making in our society. Not surprisingly, the mainstream media refused to report on the Gosnell investigation at the time.

In their 1990 best-seller Children at Risk, Dr. James Dobson and Gary Bauer, President of American Values, warned readers that there was a "civil war of values" being waged, and a generation of children was the prize to be awarded to the victor. Thirty-one years later, the battle for the hearts and minds of our children has only intensified. On today’s edition of Family Talk, hear these two family advocates discuss how we can still win this fight.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "The philosophy of the classroom in one generation is the philosophy of the government in the next." Sadly, in light of the godless curriculum that is being taught in public schools and universities, only 6% of millennials have a biblical worldview. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson and Gary Bauer, President of American Values, revisit their 1990 best-seller Children at Risk, and discuss how its content was a prophetic message to our society, even today. The question is raised, "How can America be preserved if a rising generation is rejecting the very idea that there is a God who was the author of our liberty?"

Despite an early introduction to Christianity, Tara-Leigh Cobble confesses that she wasted years passing through life on the second-hand information about the Bible she’d gleaned from others. After she was challenged to read through the Bible cover to cover, her life was transformed as she sought God’s character on each page. On today’s edition of Family Talk, the author of The Bible Recap reveals that daily Bible reading is not some box for a Christian to check. It’s our air to breathe and it’s our source of joy. Now is the time to end biblical illiteracy in the church.

Christian parents instinctively know that they’re in a battle with Satan himself for the souls of their children. But the parents of strong-willed children grapple with that spiritual reality more dramatically. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson visits for a third day with three mothers who fasted and prayed and disciplined until they saw victory. Lizz Walker, a 17-year-old, confessed, "I've spent all of my life being strong-willed and wanting to win a battle." God told her, "I want you to be strong-willed for Me!"

If one of your kids seems hard-wired to be more combative and challenging of your authority, don't get discouraged. There is hope! On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson talks with three mothers who candidly share the frustrations and challenges of parenting their "tough as nails" children. You’ll hear unflinching stories, and you may see some of yourself or your own experiences as a parent in these illustrations that demonstrate the battle of wills. In their despair, these moms learned to lean hard on the Lord.

Contrary to the misguided worldly wisdom that claims each child is born as a blank slate, Dr. James Dobson contends that God gives every boy and girl a unique personality. Some children have enough defiance to equal 10 of their peers. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. Dobson, author of The New Strong-Willed Child, talks to a panel of three formerly exhausted mothers who struggled with their strong-willed children. While they each administered a healthy dose of love, discipline, and prayer, the Lord rewarded their patience and tears with well-adjusted adult children.

When it comes to most dramatizations about Jesus, Christian filmmaker Dallas Jenkins believes that our Messiah seems overly formal and emotionally distant. On today’s edition of Family Talk, he explains that the key to the successful production of The Chosen series is that Jesus is warm, engaging, and unvarnished. He’s someone you would want to follow! The writers imagine culturally accurate backstories to characters which make the Biblical narratives come alive. No wonder The Chosen has been viewed by nearly 200 million people in 50 languages!

"Wokeness" is a modern-day heresy which is incompatible with Christianity, according to theologian Dr. Owen Strachan, author of Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement Is Hijacking the Gospel. While its divisive rhetoric employs some biblical vocabulary and concepts, it is indeed an alternative religion, both in its methods and outcome. A potent blend of racism, moral relativism, and grievance, "wokeness" undermines the unifying work of the Holy Spirit. It is, therefore, anti-gospel, and Dr. Strachan offers a strategy to oppose it.