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Abiding in Christ w/ Jim Wood

Jim Wood: Interview with Dr. John Trent, Marriage Week

·25 min·2 clips
Dr. John Trent reveals the five biblical elements of blessing that can transform your marriage.
The episode begins with Jim Wood introducing his show, Abiding in Christ, and promoting Wears Valley Ranch, a Christian home and school for children in crisis. He welcomes Dr. John Trent, an expert on marriage, to discuss National Marriage Week. Trent explains that the week is a reminder to focus on marriage beyond Valentine's Day, offering practical advice. He introduces the concept of the blessing from his book with Gary Smalley, detailing five elements: appropriate meaningful touch, using words to express value, attaching high value, envisioning a special future, and showing genuine commitment. Trent connects these to attachment theory and shares a University of Virginia study where participants perceived hills as less daunting when accompanied by a partner, illustrating marital support. Wood then asks about singles, and Trent advises focusing on blessing others and personal growth, using his daughter's recovery from a car accident as an example. Wood emphasizes that marriage should mirror Christ's sacrificial love for the church, sharing a personal anecdote about making coffee for his wife. He stresses that relying on God's grace makes marital duties possible, noting his 50-year marriage. The discussion turns to broken marriages, with Wood offering hope through God's presence, referencing Trent's book 'Broken to Blessed'. The episode ends with a call for donations to Wears Valley Ranch and listener engagement.

As heard by us

A National Marriage Week conversation uses a hill-climbing exercise to picture the steady strength of shared burdens in marriage.

National Marriage Week frames marriage as something carried day by day, especially when the path gets hard. Jim Wood’s conversation moves from the ordinary grace of blessing a spouse to a memorable hill-climbing exercise: people saw a slope as steeper when they faced it alone,…

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Why you'd press play

Want marriage counsel you can picture? Start with a hill, a shoulder, and the promise that help can make the climb feel less lonely.

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