Podcasts about mcquilkin

June 2024 Dante's Old South Marcella Prokop is a Colombian American writer and educator living in the northern Great Plains region of the US. Her work has appeared online or in print in the Brooklyn Review, Ploughshares, The Christian Science Monitor, PANK, and other publications.  Blog: marcellaprokop.com TedX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn63z6p30TQ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcella.prokop LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marcella-prokop X: @MarcellaProkop Nick Kelsh is an author, photographer, and teacher living in upstate New York. He has written and/or photographed nine books including Siblings and Naked Babies with Pulitzer Prize winning author, Anna Quindlen. Kelsh has appeared on The Today Show and Oprah multiple times. www.howtophotographyourlife.com Devon Allman is an American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and record producer. He is the son of musician and singer-songwriter Gregg Allman and has appeared occasionally as a guest musician for Gregg Allman and The Allman Brothers Band. Allman was the founder and bandleader of Honeytribe, also known as Devon Allman's Honeytribe, with whom he released two albums and toured across North America and Europe. Prior to Honeytribe, Allman contributed to several other musical recordings, notably Vargas Blues Band and the A Song for My Father compilation album. He was one of the original members of Royal Southern Brotherhood and contributed to their first two studio albums and toured with them. In 2013, Allman launched his solo career as the Devon Allman Band, and has since released three albums. His latest tour, branded as the Devon Allman Project, features special guest Duane Betts.  devonallmanproject.com Julie Stevenson is a literary agent with Massie & McQuilkin in New York. She represents literary and upmarket fiction, suspense, memoir, graphic novels, narrative nonfiction, young adult fiction and children's picture books. She is drawn to storytelling with unforgettable characters, an authorial command of voice, and a strong sense of narrative tension. She looks for work that both entertains and explores the depths of human experience. She's agented #1 New York Times bestsellers and books that have won the Pulitzer Prize, the MWA Edgar Award, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Caldecott Honor. Before she became an agent, Julie worked in the editorial departments of Tin House and Publishers Weekly. Julie grew up in Missoula, Montana and received her bachelor's degree in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.F.A in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College in New York. www.mmqlit.com www.instagram.com/juliestevensonpfarr/  https://x.com/StevensonPfarr Additional Music Provided By: Larkin Poe: www.larkinpoe.com Special Thanks Goes to: Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com The Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com Bright Hill Press: brighthillpress.org UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org Liberty Trust Hotel: www.libertytrusthotel.com NPR: https: www.npr.org WUTC: www.wutc.org Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com The host, Clifford Brooks', The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com

Returning Home, with Rev. Tyler McQuilkin. Series: QUEST: The Awakened Traveler A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: John 15:1-17.Join us this Sunday as Tyler unpacks Jesus' final teaching to his disciples in John 15, where he calls himself the true vine and calls us to remain rooted in our relationship with him. What if abiding in Christ is not merely a set of rules but a means for growth, fruitfulness, and transforming love for others?Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:jesus, disciples, abide, life, love, fruit, god, indescribable, christ, leaves, give, lord, father, christianity, continues, bear, branch, fall, spacious, amazing, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, GuestsSupport the Show.

National-level presenter and creator with expertise in developing educational content and training. Distinguished certified S&C specialist and health educator with a Masters in health behavior change. I have designed and delivered online courses for coaches working across various levels – from entry-level coaches and personal trainers to specialists in youth development and high-performance athletes. Have a respected and proven track record of effectively training coaches (both in-person and virtually) through engaging written, audio, and video content. This experience, coupled with global seminar leadership across 16 countries and work with diverse populations (young coaches, professional athletes, and even Navy SEALs), demonstrates my ability to connect with a wide range of audiences.

The Gift of Rest, with Rev. Tyler McQuilkin. Series: What Makes A Good Life? A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Genesis 1:26-2:4.This Sunday, join Tyler as he discusses finding balance between work and rest, arguing that society and even the church overly emphasize work while neglecting rest. It encourages reflecting on priorities and taking time for rest, as Genesis shows this was part of God's original creation and important for avoiding unhappiness and burnout.About the Series, What Makes A Good Life?: We spend our lives pursuing what we perceive to be 'the good life'. We pursue the things we believe will make us happy, bring us joy, make us fulfilled. What do you believe makes for a good life? This worship series will invite us to consider what makes for a good life through the lens of faith.Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:work, rest, church, god, ministry, creation, earth, day, creates, good, called, world, genesis, sabbath rest, messianic, weariness, society, place, week, christ, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, GuestsSupport the Show.

Joining me for this podcast episode is the founder and executive director of UrbanPromise Charlotte, Jimmy McQuilkin.UrbanPromise Charlotte is an organization that's on a mission to provide Charlotte's children and youth with the spiritual, academic, and social development necessary to become Christian leaders determined to restore their communities.During our conversation, Jimmy shares the inspiration behind founding UrbanPromise Charlotte and the 20-year journey he leads young people on toward a brighter future.This is an episode you don't want to miss! It is such an honor to introduce you to UrbanPromise Charlotte, and its founder Jimmy McQuilkin.UrbanPromise CharlotteSpecial mentions:Teach For AmericaRead CharlotteSpecial thanks to The Carolina FactorySupport the Show.

Imitating Christ's Humble Peacemaking, with Rev. Tyler McQuilkin. Series: Everyday Peacemakers A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Mark 11:1-11; Philippians 2:1-5.Join us as Tyler gives a Palm Sunday sermon comparing Jesus's humble entry into Jerusalem on a colt to Pilate's military procession, and calls Christians to imitate Christ's humility and peacemaking.Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:jesus, jerusalem, procession, colt, christ, people, humility, entered, life, peacemakers, imitate, church, friend, disciples, week, today, imitating christ, liberate, passover festival, city, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, GuestsSupport the show

Join me in an episode on the world of strength and conditioning as I sit down with Chris McQuilkin. From his extensive journey in coaching to his current role at Kid Strong, we dissect the critical role of mentorship in shaping a successful career in this dynamic field. We also delve into the intricacies of effective communication with athletes and fundamental skills that pave the way for lasting coaching success. Chris shares insights into the often overlooked realms of social and emotional development within coaching. He also discusses how, beyond the sport itself, it is the guidance of a skilled coach that imparts invaluable life lessons. Tune in for a conversation that sheds light on the multifaceted aspects of coaching!

The Inclusive Grace of the Magi, with Rev. Tyler McQuilkin. Series: How Does a Weary World Rejoice? A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12.Join us this Sunday as Rev. Tyler McQuilkin explores the inclusive grace shown through the Magi's visit. Based on Matthew 2:1-12, he will examine why these foreigners were the first to worship Jesus and how their response differed from Herod's threatened reaction.Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:herod, magi, jesus, god, worship, people, bethlehem, grace, epiphany, tells, story, matthew, hears, christ, child, jerusalem, respond, gifts, gratitude, east, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, GuestsSupport the show

Practicing Daily Gratitude in Good Times and Bad, with Rev. Tyler McQuilkin. Series: All In A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Psalm 100.This week, Tyler provides a message about practicing gratitude daily, even when facing difficulties, based on Psalm 100 embracing gratitude and acknowledging problems.Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:gratitude, life, psalm, gabe, sheep, shepherd, god, day, lord, thanksgiving, good, thankful, grateful, feel, joyful noise, serve, embodies, presbyterian, mourn, dale, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, GuestsSupport the show

Will and Marcus launch our hardwoods series by discussing oak masting biology. They review studies assessing acorn production variation across and within oak species, discuss study results of wildlife acorn preference, and provide management tools to increase acorn productivity on your land.    Resources: Brooke, J. M., Basinger, P. S., Birckhead, J. L., Lashley, M. A., McCord, J. M., Nanney, J. S., & Harper, C. A. (2019). Effects of fertilization and crown release on white oak (Quercus alba) masting and acorn quality. Forest Ecology and Management, 433, 305-312. Boggess, C. M., Strickland, B., Alexander, H. D., & Lashley, M. A. (2019). Mast Seeding in Oaks: A Strategy to Satiate Predators or Strengthen Apparent Competition?. In American Fisheries Society & The Wildlife Society 2019 Joint Annual Conference. AFS. Boggess, C. M., Baruzzi, C., Alexander, H. D., Strickland, B. K., & Lashley, M. A. (2022). Exposure to fire affects acorn removal by altering consumer preference. Forest Ecology and Management, 508, 120044. Downs, A. A., & McQuilkin, W. E. (1944). Seed production of southern Appalachian oaks. Journal of Forestry, 42(12), 913-920. Greenberg, C. H., & Parresol, B. R. (2000). Acorn production characteristics of southern Appalachian oaks: a simple method to predict within-year crop size. Res. Pap. SRS-20. Asheville, NC: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 16 p., 20. Lashley, M. A., McCord, J. M., Greenberg, C. H., & Harper, C. A. (2009). Masting characteristics of white oaks: Implications for management. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference Southeast Association Fish and Wildlife Agencies (Vol. 63, pp. 21-26). Minser, W. G., Allen, T., Ellsperman, B., Schlarbaum, S. E., & Eversole, A. G. (1995). Feeding response of wild turkeys to chestnuts in comparison with other mast species. In Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of Southeastern Association of Fish Wildlife Agencies, SEAFWA, Nashville, TN (pp. 490-499).   Dr. Marcus Lashley (@DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (@dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (@turkeysfortomorrow)  UF DEER Lab (@ufdeerlab) (YouTube)   Watch these podcasts on YouTube: Wild Turkey Science YouTube   Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund  This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org.  Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family.    Music by Artlist.io Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak  

Will and Marcus launch our hardwoods series by discussing oak masting biology. They review studies assessing acorn production variation across and within oak species, discuss study results of wildlife acorn preference, and provide management tools to increase acorn productivity on your land.    Resources: Brooke, J. M., Basinger, P. S., Birckhead, J. L., Lashley, M. A., McCord, J. M., Nanney, J. S., & Harper, C. A. (2019). Effects of fertilization and crown release on white oak (Quercus alba) masting and acorn quality. Forest Ecology and Management, 433, 305-312. Boggess, C. M., Strickland, B., Alexander, H. D., & Lashley, M. A. (2019). Mast Seeding in Oaks: A Strategy to Satiate Predators or Strengthen Apparent Competition?. In American Fisheries Society & The Wildlife Society 2019 Joint Annual Conference. AFS. Boggess, C. M., Baruzzi, C., Alexander, H. D., Strickland, B. K., & Lashley, M. A. (2022). Exposure to fire affects acorn removal by altering consumer preference. Forest Ecology and Management, 508, 120044. Downs, A. A., & McQuilkin, W. E. (1944). Seed production of southern Appalachian oaks. Journal of Forestry, 42(12), 913-920. Greenberg, C. H., & Parresol, B. R. (2000). Acorn production characteristics of southern Appalachian oaks: a simple method to predict within-year crop size. Res. Pap. SRS-20. Asheville, NC: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 16 p., 20. Lashley, M. A., McCord, J. M., Greenberg, C. H., & Harper, C. A. (2009). Masting characteristics of white oaks: Implications for management. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference Southeast Association Fish and Wildlife Agencies (Vol. 63, pp. 21-26). Minser, W. G., Allen, T., Ellsperman, B., Schlarbaum, S. E., & Eversole, A. G. (1995). Feeding response of wild turkeys to chestnuts in comparison with other mast species. In Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of Southeastern Association of Fish Wildlife Agencies, SEAFWA, Nashville, TN (pp. 490-499).   Dr. Marcus Lashley (@DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (@dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (@turkeysfortomorrow)  UF DEER Lab (@ufdeerlab) (YouTube)   Watch these podcasts on YouTube: Wild Turkey Science YouTube   Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund  This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org.  Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family.    Music by Artlist.io Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak  

Today's EXTRA episode is based on Warren Smith's “Editor's Notebook” column, which you can find here. To hear Robertson McQuilkin in the YouTube video I mentioned in the podcast, click here. The producers for today's program are Jeff McIntosh and Rich Roszel. I'm Warren Smith.  Until next time, may God bless you. Editor's Note:  This episode and the original “Editor's Notebook” column are based on an article written by Warren Smith in 2017 for The Colson Center's Breakpoint.org website.

Reconciliation, with Rev. Tyler McQuilkin. Series: One Thing A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.Join Tyler as he explores the biblical understanding of reconciliation as a reality achieved through Christ. We respond to this grace not to gain salvation, but out of gratitude. Our imperfect efforts to live out reconciliation are met with fresh grace daily and we are called to participate in Christ's ministry by becoming reconcilers ourselves.About the Series, One Thing: What is the one thing we all need to be reminded of to live with greater resilience and compassion in these challenging days? We have fantastic guest preachers lined up for you this summer. Each guest preacher will bring their “ONE THING.” They will offer the one passage of scripture and one core message they believe is most important for you to hear. What is your “One Thing?"Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:reconciliation, reconciled, god, christ, grace, reality, church, meal, day, paul, faith, live, swipe, worship, free, week, writes, student id card, people, life, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, GuestsSupport the show

Chris, AKA Tex, McQuilkin has been with me on Power Athlete's journey for the past decade. In this week's episode we reminisce, say a fond farewell and wish him luck as he moves onto pastures new and we embrace our next chapter. Shownotes: https://pahq.co/EP714 Are you looking for a new challenge? Become a Certified Power Athlete Coach and learn coaching mastery. START TODAY - https://academy.powerathletehq.com/p/power-athlete-coach-bundle Check out what we do: Training - https://powerathletehq.com/training Nutrition - https://powerathletehq.com/nutrition Knowledge - https://academy.powerathletehq.com

Brian is a owner/partner at Active PT. They have grown very fast and run an amazing business. We learn about Brians story and see how he and his business partner built their company so quickly. 

Addressing Polarization in Society, with Rev. Tyler McQuilkin. Series: A Ruckus For Good A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon.About the Series, A Ruckus For Good: Wendell Berry suggests we "practice resurrection." We take the calling of practicing resurrection seriously at First Presbyterian. We will celebrate the promise of Easter that “Love Wins” exploring how we are called to create a ruckus for good in our community and in throughout the world. We will address many of the issues that impact our lives together through the lens of our faith.Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Featuring:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, GuestsSupport the show

South Freo star and the best thing to come out of Mundijong, Toby McQuilkin joined us as our latest guest on the poddy ahead of the WA Day Derby. Toby reveals why he dons the long sleeves, what his idea of a 'healthy dinner' is, plus speaks of his ambitions to reach the AFL after being under the eyes of West Coast as a train-on and playing in this year's state game! Thanks again to our 2023 major sponsor, SkinBRO #livebravelybro. Use BRAYÐAN20 for 20% off all products at get FREE shipping for orders $35 or over at ⁠⁠⁠www.skinbro.com⁠⁠⁠  ⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/myskinbro?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=⁠⁠⁠ Follow Toby: ⁠Toby Mcquilkin (@tobymcquilkin) | Instagram Get in touch with us: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/brayandethan⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠centresquareproductions@gmail.com

Welcoming the Stranger, with Rev. Tyler McQuilkin. Series: A Ruckus For Good A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Luke 10, 25-37.About the Series, A Ruckus For Good: Wendell Berry suggests we "practice resurrection." We take the calling of practicing resurrection seriously at First Presbyterian. We will celebrate the promise of Easter that “Love Wins” exploring how we are called to create a ruckus for good in our community and in throughout the world. We will address many of the issues that impact our lives together through the lens of our faith.Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:stranger, man, samaritan, neighbor, love, people, road, jesus, religious leaders, hospitality, calls, levite, writes, christ, god, priest, exclude, question, duties, unclean, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, GuestsSupport the show

Where to find Rachel: To learn more and apply to work one-on-one with Rachel, visit her website: https://www.metflexlife.com/apply Join Rachel's weekly newsletter: https://www.metflexlife.com/newsletter Check out Rachel's NEW podcasts below MINIFLEX on Spotify or Apple Podcast MUSCLE SCIENCE FOR WOMEN on Spotify or Apple Podcast Connect with Rachel on social media: Instagram: @rachelgregory.cns TikTok: @rachelgregory.cns Youtube: @rachelgregory Facebook:@metflexlife Twitter: @rachelgregoryms LinkedIn: @rachelgregory Primary Programs The Flex Fam Muscle Science For Women Keto For Women About Rachel: Rachel Gregory is a Board-Certified Nutritionist, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Author, Podcast Host, and founder of MetFlex Life. Rachel received her Master's Degree in Nutrition & Exercise Physiology from James Madison University and Bachelor's Degree in Sports Medicine from the University of Miami. Rachel completed the first-ever human clinical trial looking at the effects of the Ketogenic Diet in non-elite CrossFit athletes, which is published in the International Journal of Sports and Exercise Medicine. Rachel is a former Collegiate Triathlete and Athletic Trainer and she has worked with a variety of individuals throughout her career that include Division I collegiate athletes, WNBA stars, and some of the top bodybuilders in the world. Currently, in her day-to-day coaching business, Rachel guides her clients to becoming the best, most confident version of themselves. She has a passion for educating those dedicated to optimizing their physical and mental well-being while improving long-term health and fitness goals. In her group coaching membership, The Flex Fam, Rachel has helped women all across the world learn how to ditch the restrictive, all-or-nothing mindset and instead thrive through the power of metabolic flexibility.

We See God In Each Other, with Tyler McQuilkin. A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Luke 1:39-45.About the Series, Advent 2022: Generation to Generation: This series reminds us of the ways our lives, histories, actions, and stories are interconnected and woven together. In the midst of narratives, policies, and rhetoric designed to divide us, what does it look like to practice belonging to one another? The work of God is always unfolding— in and through us. This Advent season, how will we carry it forth?Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:god, elizabeth, unexpected, mary, pageant, people, life, child, world, bearer, wally, gift, book, lead, joy, war, bearing, hope, encounter, calls, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

Mission Possible: Youth Ministry, with Tyler McQuilkin. A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: John 13:31-35, John 15:10-13.Today's world is a hard place for all of us to be in, but especially young people growing up in this time. What has Jesus shared with us that will help equip young people wherever their lives take them? That they may embody this love of Christ for themselves and tomorrow's world.About the Series, Mission Possible: Living the Spacious and Radical Love of Jesus so that all might flourish.: The commitment of First Presbyterian for the past 120 years, "to ground ourselves in the love of Christ so that we might be the presence of Christ's love in Central Oregon and throughout the world" has not changed. However, the pandemic, the epidemic of gun violence, racial unrest, political divisions, mental health crisis and so much more over the last two years has dramatically changed the landscape around us. It has dramatically changed our lives. And, it has also dramatically impacted church life and community. This fall series will highlight the urgency of our Mission and Strategic Priorities and the opportunities to contribute in our worship and sermons.Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:youth ministry, disciples, life, jesus, people, god, student, church, love, community, accepted, road, ted, world, equip, flourish, neighbors, serving, faith, spacious, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

What will Youth Ministry Look Like in the Future?, with Tyler McQuilkin. A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: 1 Samuel 3.This Sunday, we introduce and welcome the newest member of our pastoral team Tyler McQuilkin. Tyler is a recent graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary. And he just joined our team as our new pastor for youth. There is no question, the past two years has had a profound impact on our youth and their mental, emotional and spiritual well being. You won't want to miss this Sunday, as Tyler shares his vision, and passion for youth ministry in these challenging times.About the Series, Questions: Abraham Heschel said we are closer to God when we are asking and wrestling with questions than when we think we have all the answers. This summer we will center our worship faithfully engaging and responding to the questions you submitted as best we can.Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don't ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.Keywords:youth ministry, samuel, people, question, eli, god, church, called, youth, world, community, hope, life, lead, lord, young, bart, hear, teenagers, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregonFeaturing:Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

South Fremantle Bulldogs star joined Sportsday to talk the win over Swan Districts, and look ahead to the Derby vs East Fremantle in the WAFL's Think Mental Health round.

Dr. Mike Avery Asks "Does God care about what I wear?" Scripture:

Dr. Mike Avery asks the question "Does God care about my words?" Scripture:

Dr. Mike Avery discusses what kingdom values look like. Scripture:

Dr. Mike Naylor, James Whitaker, Dr. Paula Whitaker, Michelle Raven, Dr. Tim Dunn, and Joe Craft discuss what the authority of Christ looks like in our daily lives. Scripture:

Jesus is with us in power and presence in missions. Scripture: Matthew 28:18-20

Dr. Naylor takes a look into how Christ is the authority over the church. Scripture:

Dr. Matthew Lee Anderson walks through what true repentance actually looks like. Scripture:

Anthony Bryant shares his testimony and how it shows what real freedom in life looks life. Scripture:

James T. McLawhorn of the Columbia Urban League offers some of his testimony Scripture:

Pastor James Womack teaches on how being both a strong Christian and leader can do for your church. Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:11-16

Pastor James Womack encourages the church that they are not in critical condition. Scripture: Matthew 16:18

Studies show that the loss of a spouse, whether through divorce or death is one of the most devastating losses a human can experience. Our podcast guest, Deb McQuilkin, knows the unspeakable grief of the loss of a husband through an unwanted divorce and the sorrow of losing a beloved husband through death. Perhaps these losses are why Deb feels such a kinship with Naomi whose story we find in the Bible in the book of Ruth. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Deb invites us to consider our own shattered dreams, difficult relationships, and practical needs and learn through Naomi's responses to loss. Deb knows all about long distance grandparenting as she travels from her home in Australia to the US to spend time with grandchildren on both continents. Deb is not only an author, but before retirement and her move to Australia, she was an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina in Health Systems Administration focusing on capacity building in global health. Before her husband, Robertson's death, she ministered with him worldwide.

Chris McPadden shares his testimony of how powerful the public reading of scripture can be. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-4:11

Paul Eperson gets into how we can trust in Jesus through our hardest times. Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

Pastor Benny Tate explains how you need to embrace change in order to continue to reach people. Scripture:

Pastor Diego Mesa teaches on how to continue leading through crisis moments Scripture:

Pastor Gerald Brooks teaches on how to successfully lead leaders. Scripture:

Dr. Mark Smith offers real practical advice to how to lead your communities with success. Scripture:

Bill Jones sits down with three men whose lives have been forever changed by Jesus and His Gospel. Scripture: John 1:35-49

Chris McQuilkin is the Director of Training and Education for Power Athlete, a worldwide strength and conditioning organization focused on empowering performance. Chris has led over 100 clinics across 16 countries spanning 6 continents introducing the Power Athlete Methodology to athletes, sports medicine professionals, performance and sport coaches. He has coached and implemented programs for tactical athletes including Naval Special Warfare and US Army XVIII Airborne Corps. Additionally he has coached collegiately at Georgetown University, Marymount University, as well as interned with the University of Texas' football program. Chris is currently based outside Austin, Texas creating online education content and traveling to lead in-person clinics covering athleticism development, barbell training, and speed development. A former collegiate lacrosse player and 3-year team captain at Marymount University, McQuilkin is still an avid lifter and ever refining his craft to better impact the coaches and athletes he works with daily. Cerberus Strength Use Code: STRENGTH_GAME at Cerberus-Strength.com

A Promise Kept (Part 1) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 2) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 3) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 4) - Robertson McQuilkinFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete.  A Promise KeptDay 4 of 4 Guest:                        Robertson McQuilkin From the series:       Our Future  Bob: What's the right response, the biblical response, when someone you love has been diagnosed with  Alzheimer's disease?  Do you take care of that person?  Do you hire someone else to be the caregiver?  For Dr. Robertson McQuilkin the decision was simple.  He chose to take care of his wife Muriel.  He realized it was his responsibility, not a responsibility that his children should bear. Robertson: I've told Marty, who is my oldest daughter and who stays with Muriel when I have to leave town, I said, "Marty, now I do not want you to rearrange your life to care for your mother if I die before she does.  I've got it fixed so you can put her in a care institution."  She said, "I'm not going to do it.  God put me here to take care of her."  And I said, "Marty, I really want all of the children to go on with their life, and Mom won't know anything, so just" – she said, "Well, Dad, when you're dead you won't have any say, will you?" [laughter] Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Thursday, August 14th.  Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  We'll talk today with Dr. Robertson McQuilkin about a Christian's responsibility in providing long-term care for a loved one.  Stay tuned. And welcome to FamilyLife Today.  Thanks for joining us on the Thursday edition.  As we have been reflecting this week on an interview that we actually recorded nine years ago, Dennis, with Dr. Robertson McQuilkin, the former president of the Columbia International University and Seminary, who stepped down in 1990 to care for his wife, Muriel, after she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  I've been thinking about the alcove down the hall from the studio where we have pictures of Dr. McQuilkin, and where we have a lighthouse that stands there to commemorate his sacrificial love for his wife, and we've had the opportunity over the years to honor a number of people who have demonstrated that same kind of sacrificial love and give them an award that bears his name. Dennis: Right, and that lighthouse, Bob, that's down in the hall from here, stands on a 50-pound chunk of polished granite, and we picked out that granite because of its hardness, toughness, weight, and just the sheer mass that it represents, because the story we've been listening to all week here is a story of a light being set on a hill.  It's the love of Christ being demonstrated between a husband and his wife when his wife couldn't care for him, couldn't speak with him, couldn't connect with him emotionally and spiritually. And, you know, we have a lot of privileges here on FamilyLife Today, and when we get a chance to tell a story that exalts Jesus Christ; that talks practically about a tough situation where a husband fulfills his promise and his pledge to care for his wife, Bob, it just doesn't get any better than that, and that's why we created that award for Dr. McQuilkin and, as you mentioned, we've had a chance to give it to a half a dozen other people and honor them for toughness in their commitment and really keeping their covenant.  That's what marriage is all about. Bob: We're going to hear part 4 right now of the interview that we recorded back in 1999 with Dr. Robertson McQuilkin and, again, at that time his wife Muriel was still alive.  She went home to be with the Lord in 2003.  It was a real privilege to be able to interact with him about his selfless sacrificial love for her. Bob: We've talked about this all week.  We've talked about your decision to step down, to come home to be the full-time caretaker for your wife.  We have folks listening to the broadcast who have made different decisions about care for a loved one, whether it's a husband, or a wife, an aging mother or father.  They have chosen to bring in professional help or to provide for full-time care in a nursing facility.  Do you think that's wrong for somebody to make that choice? Robertson: Of course not.  The touchstone for me is what is best for her.  When there comes a time, either because of my health or hers, that someone else can care for her better than I, then painful as it will be to be separated – because, you know, her loving presence is there all day every day.  I would miss that.  But that's the touchstone.  What would love do in this case?  For example, if the roles were reversed, Muriel couldn't lift me.  She couldn't put me in a wheelchair.  She'd hang on as long as she could, but roles are different.  It came at a time in life when I could do it.  So, no.  In fact, this is just a story.  I'm not pushing an agenda, I'm not setting an example.  I mean, you can kind of pick and choose and try to make something of it, but I'm just telling a story, and that's the way of joy for us. Dennis: Yes, I think that's healthy for you to say – you don't have an agenda here – because, Bob, I think we have a generation of men and women who are part of the baby boom generation who are watching their parents age, and they do wonder – what is God's will here?  How can I best care for my mother, my father and, in fact, I'm asking that question myself.  My mom is 87 years of age, still able to live in her home, primarily because my brother lives near her.  I think that's a good standard you've given us – the standard of what is best for the object of the love. Robertson: Well, Dennis, you bring in the parental thing.  I've told Marty, who is my eldest daughter and who stays with Muriel when I have to leave town.  I said, "Marty, now I do not want you to rearrange your life to care for your mother if I die before she does.  I've got it fixed so you can put her in a care institution."  She said, "I'm not going to do it.  God put me here to take care of her."  And I said, "Marty, I really want all of the children to go on with their life, and Mom won't know anything, so just" – she said, "Well, Dad, when you're dead you won't have any say, will you?" [laughter] Bob: She is a chip off the old block, isn't she?  The oak did not fall far from the tree in that case. Dennis: Exactly right.  Let's go back to when you first found out she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  If someone could have sat down with you at that point and told you three or four things … Robertson: … a couple of things … Dennis: … yes, what would you say to that person who today is maybe facing this brand-new? Robertson: This is what I say to people who – of course, everywhere I go people tell me their stories, and if they ask me for my opinion, I say, "Well, the first thing is to realize that no two experiences are the same."  The time of onset, the length of time, the rate of downward progression, the functions that are lost – all are different.  About the only thing that's the same is memory loss.  But, from then on, it's unpredictable.  I tried, early on, to read what my doctor gave me – the medical papers on this – and tried to plot my life accordingly – how long she was going to live, what was going to happen next and so forth – none of it panned out that way, it was all different.  So don't build your plans and expectancies on this happening like someone else.  You just have to learn as you go along. The second thing I tell people, and this is so critical, Dennis – it's your expectancies that will ruin you and her and your relationship.  In other words, she's losing function, right?  But if you always lag a month or six months behind in what you're pushing on her, what you're trying to get her to do and so forth – it's dreadful.  I remember one time when Marty said, "Dad, you're not holding Mom to it.  She could remember if she tried."  And I said, "Honey, she can't."  And when Marty came to that position, where she recognized that Muriel can't – that she wants to but she can't – she came to such peace and overflowing love in that relationship.  So expectancies – this has destroyed many – and it will destroy your own peace.   Dennis: Yes, let me read a verse here that came to my mind while you were talking – Romans 15 – "Now, we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves." Robertson: Amen. Dennis: If you think about what he's saying, Bob, it's no different in a new marriage.  There are couples who start out who don't have the capability.  They can't.  They are unable, and what he has come to is he's come to the point of embracing Muriel's limitations, her weaknesses, and you're strong – "be strong in faith"… Robertson: …"and hold them." Dennis: Yes. Bob: You said on an earlier broadcast that you made the decision when you received the diagnosis not to pursue experimental procedures, protocols, vitamins, trips to Mexico, getting rid of the aluminum in the house, all of the things you had read about or heard about.  Why not?  Why not see if there's maybe something out there that could prolong the interaction? Robertson: I think it's an individual choice.  I have friends with other illnesses as well who have spent the last years of their life, which they should have been savoring, running here, traveling there, getting hopes up on this, getting hopes up on that, cancer, whatever – and in the end it wasn't any different from others.  And that's where I'm coming from.  Other people have other backgrounds where they're coming from.  But, for me, that's where I'm coming from, and I'm saying, "I just don't have to spend the rest of my life tracking down everything."  So the medical people in my world, I said, "I'll just go along with what they have to say." Bob: You know, you haven't had to face what some people have to face with a prolonged illness, where there are respirators or where there are feeding tubes or where there is care that goes beyond what you are able to provide today for Muriel.  If that day were to come, do you know what you'd do? Robertson: Oh, yes.  Muriel and I agreed many decades ago that when we come to that last descent to the grave, and God is calling us home, we pledged to one another that we would not use what is called "heroic means."  She's on "no code" as far as the hospital is concerned – no resuscitation, no artificial means to sustain life. So, yes, but it might not come in that kind of a package.  I was interviewing a talk show host on the West Coast.  It was supposed to be about another book on ethics, which I had written, but he'd just read an article in "Christianity Today" telling part of my story, and that's what he wanted to talk about.   So, all of a sudden, he said, "Open line."  I didn't know it was an open line show.  And this lady came on and pretty aggressively she says, "Why don't you let her go?"  And I said, "What do you mean let her go?"  And she said, "Well, do you feed her?"  And I said, "Yes."  She says, "Well, why don't you quit?  She'd be a lot better off with Jesus."  So I'd never do that, would I?  I don't know.  I wouldn't do it just like that, but several years ago I red that the next stage for Muriel will be that she forgets how to swallow, and we'll have to put a stomach PEG in.  Well, is that part of heroics?  Not very heroic – five-minute outpatient operation.  And what am I going to do?  I don't spent a lot of time thinking about it, but when I do, it's a dilemma.  I don't know the answer.  Knowing me, I just may put in the PEG.  But what I'm saying is God has provided the wisdom for each choice until now, and I'm just going to trust Him to guide me at that time. Bob: Folks who are regular caregivers to Alzheimer's patients are encouraged to have time out of the house once a week, twice a week, when somebody else watches your wife, in this case, and you just get away to clear your head and take a walk.  Do you do that? Robertson: Well, you see, once again, if I answer the question truthfully, somebody might take it as a model, and it's not a model.  But I've never felt the need of that.  In fact, when I'm away, I have a longing to be back with her, if anything, as much if not more than what it used to be in the olden days.  I just like to be there with her.  I want to get back to her.   However, I'm no judge at it, because when I step down, I expect to be a full-time homemaker, nothing else.  But she changed enough, and my circumstances changed enough, so that I could keep my speaking engagements for two or three years in advance.  I didn't have to cancel any of them, which I thought I was going to cancel them all, because my sister first, and now my daughter, come and stay when I travel.  So I can't judge.  I am away quite often for no more than three days usually – two or three days, and that is a break.  So if I say I don't need a break, well, wait a minute, how do I know? Bob: You get breaks from time to time, yes. Dennis: One of the things our listeners don't get a chance to see is the facial expression on our guests, and on one of the earlier days on the broadcast this week we called home while Marty, his daughter, is taking care of Muriel.  And I just wish our listeners, Bob, could have seen Robertson's face when Marty answered the phone.  The first question that Robertson asked, and he asked it and leaned forward in the microphone, and there was – I can't even explain it, but it was a glow, it was an expectancy, but he asked this question – "Has she smiled today?"  And you could tell he had missed that smile.  That's true, isn't it? Robertson: Oh, yes. Dennis: That's important to you even now, isn't it? Robertson: Oh, yes, because it happens when our eyes connect.  Usually it's vacant but once in a while we connect, and she really is looking at you.  And after she starts looking at you, she smiles, that's great. Dennis: And you put the flag out on the front porch to let your neighbors know that she smiled today. Robertson: That's the way it is.  It doesn't fly as much as it used to. Dennis: Let me ask you a question – what are you going to do when there's no flag to fly? Robertson: I'll just have to trust the Lord for that day.  And it is much less now than it was, but as long as He – I have asked, on occasion, Lord, let me keep her a little longer.  I really want her. Dennis: Yes, in fact, I want to read something to our listeners.  This is the – well, it's the last page in the book that he's written.  It's entitled, "My Precious."   Well, you know what?  I'd rather you read it, I think.  You wrote it.  I think you might be able to read it a little more effectively than how I would read it, Robertson.  So page 85, share it with our listeners. Robertson: "Twenty-two summers ago, Muriel and I began our journey into the twilight.  It's midnight now, at least for her.  Sometimes I wonder when dawn will break.  Even the dread Alzheimer's disease isn't supposed to attack so early and torment so long.  Yet, in her silent world, Muriel is so content, so lovable, I sometimes pray, "Please, Lord, could you let me keep her a little longer?"  If Jesus took her home, how I would miss her gentle, sweet presence.  Oh, yes, there are times when I get irritated but not often.  It doesn't make sense.  And, besides, I love to care for her.  She is my precious." Dennis: You know, Robertson, as you were reading that, I was thinking that's a much better picture of love than anything Hollywood ever created – ever!  That's love right there – loving someone who really is incapable of loving you back.  But you've loved her with the love that God has loved you, and you've cared for her, and you can tell it's the real deal.  And I just want to thank you again.  I've thanked you almost every day you're on the broadcast, but I want to thank you again for making the journey over here.  You had to travel to get over here and to share your story and Muriel's.  But thanks for being a great lover of your wife and for being a covenant keeper, and I want to make a promise to you.  As long as God enables us, we're going to tell your story at our FamilyLife conferences and here on the broadcast.  Robertson: Thank you, Dennis.  You have a wonderful gift of affirmation, even if it sometimes borders on – what shall I say – exaggeration.  But I appreciate your affirmation and the honor of being with you on this great program. Bob: You can't listen back to that without, once again, thinking here is a guy we can all learn from, can't we? Dennis: Oh, yes, yes, and need to learn from.  I mean, some of us have gotten angry with our spouses over the most trivial issues and things, and here is a man who comes alongside us said, "Would you kindly get your head up?  Would you realize the privilege you have to care for another human being for a lifetime?" I just was listening to him.  He began there at the end saying, you know, "Twenty-two summers ago, Muriel and I began our journey toward twilight, and it's now midnight for her."  He cared for her all the way to the end, and we need love stories like this. And, Bob, I just want to say thank you to listeners who support our broadcast, because when they give, that's what they're making possible, and in a very real way in a culture that doesn't promote selfless love, that doesn't promote lifelong commitment, and covenant-keeping love.  I think it's the right thing.  It is so right, it is so wholesome, so good, and so needed in this generation.  We need to be reminded that love is a covenant, and I think I just want to encourage our listeners when you go home tonight or even if you are home, just maybe turn off the TV and just go sit on the couch together and just say, "You know what?  I'm going to tell you I love you again and if I had it to do all over again, I would.  I'd marry you all over again, 1,000 times out of 1,000."  Bob: And then you can follow it up by saying – and I was thinking maybe we ought to go this fall to one of those FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences. Dennis: That's a great idea, Bob. Bob: Get a weekend away together, just the two of us and focus on our marriage and on each other.  We are hosting these conferences in cities all across the country this fall.  I'm going to be speaking at one of the conferences in Philadelphia coming up in November, but I was just looking recently, we're going to be in Monterey, California, we're going to be in San Antonio, Texas, with the conference.  We're going to have conferences in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.  In fact, there's probably a conference in driving distance for most of our listeners. You can find out all the information on the website, FamilyLife.com, find when the conference is coming to a city near where you live, mark that date out on your calendar, and go ahead and get registered now.  Some of these conferences fill up, and sell out in advance.  So make your reservations, make your plans, you can register online, or you can call 1-800-FLTODAY.  We'll answer any questions you have, and we can get you registered right over the phone.  1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY, that's the phone number, or go online at FamilyLife.com, and if you are interested in getting a copy of the book Dr. McQuilkin wrote called "A Promise Kept," you can order that from our website as well, or you can order it when you call 1-800-FLTODAY. Then, again, I want to encourage you to take time in your marriage each day to spend time with one another, praying, looking at the Scriptures together, and if you need a tool to help make that happen, the book that Dennis Rainey and his wife, Barbara, have written called "Moments With You," is a wonderful daily devotional that we'd like to send you this month as a way of saying thank you for your financial support of the ministry of FamilyLife Today.   Because we are listener-supported, we depend on folks like you to make a donation from time to time to help support the work of this ministry, and if you make that donation this month, feel free to request a copy of "Moments With You."  If you are donating online, when you come to the keycode box on the donation form, type in the word "You," y-o-u, so we'll know to send you a copy of the devotional guide.  And if you are calling 1-800-FLTODAY to make your donation, just request Dennis and Barbara's devotional or the book, "Moments With You."  Again, we're thrilled to send it to you.  We trust it will help you strengthen your marriage, and we appreciate your partnership with us and your support of FamilyLife Today. Now, tomorrow we want to invite you back as we begin a conversation on youth ministry with the director of student ministries from a church in North Carolina.  Steve Wright is making changes in how he does youth ministry, and he thinks changes need to be made.  We'll talk about that tomorrow.  I hope you can be with us.  I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.  On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.  We'll 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.    _______________________________________________________________We are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider donating today to help defray the costs?Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com          

A Promise Kept (Part 1) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 2) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 3) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 4) - Robertson McQuilkinFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. A Promise KeptDay 2 of 4 Guest:                        Robertson McQuilkin From the series:       My Decision, Part 2________________________________________________________________Bob: When Muriel McQuilkin was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, it meant a dramatic re-ordering of priorities for the McQuilkins.  Eventually, her husband, Robertson, stepped down from his role as the president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary. Robertson:  A student asked me one time after I had resigned, a new student, came over and visited me.  He said, "Do you miss being president?"  And I said, "Well, you know, I never thought about it but, no, I don't.  I like my assignment.  I've learned to cook and keep house and garden, and I take care of Muriel.  I love it." Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, August 12th.  Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  Robertson McQuilkin's life changed when his wife, Muriel, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, but his priorities didn't.  Stay tuned. And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition.  I remember the first time I read the story of Robertson and Muriel McQuilkin, it was in an article, I think, in "Christianity Today," and I remember thinking, "That's powerful.  That's a great demonstration of commitment and love."  You remember reading the same article, don't you? Dennis: I do, I do.  I wept as I read it.  I mean, it's just a great story of a man's covenant commitment to his wife and, Bob, if there has ever been a day when there needed to be stories like this told on radio, it's today, because we have diminished marriage in terms of its covenant and its commitment and what love means to such a degree – well, divorce has replaced it all, and I think, as a result, as a nation, we suffer from a profound mistrust of one another because we can't trust each other to keep the most sacred promise two people ever make to one another. Bob: This week we're giving our listeners an opportunity to hear an interview that we recorded, actually, a number of years ago – almost nine years ago now – with Dr. Robertson McQuilkin.  This is one of our all-time favorites, it's a classic, because it is such a profound love story. Dennis: It really is.  Robertson McQuilkin is an international speaker.  He's written a number of books, he served as an international church planning missionary for more than 12 years in Japan and was president of Columbia International University for 22 years before he resigned in 1990, and you know that's the story, Bob.  He resigned because he wanted to go home and take care of his wife of then more than 40 years, Muriel, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Bob: And after we read the article, we contacted Columbia and asked them if there was any audio recording of his resignation speech, and we're going to play an excerpt from that, and then we'll pick up with part 2 of a conversation we had nine years ago with Dr. Robertson McQuilkin. Dennis: And as you listen to this recording, this is less than two minutes long, but I want you to listen to the resolute commitment of a man to his wife.  This is some of the most profound audio you'll ever hear. Robertson:  [from audiotape.]  I haven't, in my life, experienced easy decision-making on major decisions, but one of the simplest and clearest decisions I've had to make is this one because circumstances dictated it. Muriel now in the last couple of month seems to be almost happy when with me, and almost never happy when not with me.  In fact, she seems to feel trapped, becomes very fearful, sometimes almost terror, and when she can't get to me there can be anger, she's in distress. But when I'm with her, she's happy and contented.  And so I must be with her at all times, and, you see, it's not only that I promised in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part, and I'm a man of my word.  But as I have said – I don't know with this group – but I have publicly it's the only fair thing.  She sacrificed for me for 40 years to make my life possible.  So – if I cared for her for 40 years, I'd still be in debt.   However, there's much more.  It's not that I have to, it's that I get to.  I love her very dearly, and you can tell it's not easy to talk about.  She is a delight.  It's a great honor to care for such a wonderful person. Bob: That powerful, moving announcement has as much power today as it did when it was originally made.  And, Dennis, I'm sitting here watching the man who made it, and it's moving for him to hear his own words 10 years later. Dennis: That's right.  Robertson McQuilkin joins us on the broadcast, and, Robertson, I've got to tell you, as I listen to your words, maybe it's because I'm meeting you face-to-face, but every time I hear those words, I get emotional because this is where life makes up its mind at home.  It's a man keeping his word with his wife, and those were words, back in 1990, but we now have a decade that has followed where you have put shoe leather to those words, as you did resign, and as you did step away from being the president of a seminary and college that you loved; that you profoundly served in and for a number of years and had a great ministry.  You had a speaking ministry around the country.  You had a writing ministry, and you gave that up to go care for your wife, and as one who is a younger man aspiring to be a covenant keeper, and on behalf of many of the male listeners, and, for that matter, Bob, many of the female listeners, too, I'd like to say thank you – thank you for doing what you did.  You did the right thing. Robertson: Well, if God can use it, then I praise Him.  It seems very unexceptional to me – just the natural thing to do.  But thank you. Bob: As you listen back, and I know you haven't heard that resignation announcement.  It's not something that you play on your car stereo from time to time – it had to bring back that memory of being in front of the students, of making what you described there as an easy decision, and yet for a man to walk away from something you've invested your life in for more than two decades, it may have been an easy decision but a hard process to have to make it, wasn't it? Robertson: Well, someone asked me when I began to make career plans, and I said, "No, no, I've never been career-oriented.  It's cause-oriented.  The touchstone for me always has been how can I – whatever God has put in me or will put in me, invested in me, how can that count to the max for what He's up to in the world. So all decisions, then, major decisions of my life, have been what would advance the cause?  "What is God's will" is another way to put it.  So when I say "simple," I mean it was not hard for me to discern what God's will was.  But a student asked me one time after I had resigned, a new student came over to visit me, and he said, "Do you miss being president?"  And I said, "Well, you know, I never thought about it but, no, I don't.  I like my assignment.  I've learned to cook and keep house and garden, and I take care of Muriel.  I love it." So that night before I went to sleep I thought about his question, and I said, "Now, Lord, this is fine.  This is Your assignment, and I like it, but if the coach puts the player on the bench, and it means He doesn't need him in the game.  Now, You're under no obligation to tell me, Lord, but if You'd like to share with me, I'd love to know why You didn't need me in the game."  And I had a troubled night that night.   The next morning – at that time, Muriel could still walk – sort of wobbly, so we'd take a walk out in the neighborhood, and I'd have to hold her hand to be sure she wouldn't fall.  We were walking along a narrow sidewalk with a high embankment on one side and a very busy thoroughfare on the other.  And, fortunately, we never met anybody there, or somebody would have to get out in that traffic.  But this day I heard footsteps behind me.  I looked back, and here was a local derelict weaving along behind us.  I said, well, he'll never catch up, but he did.  And he just sort of wobbled out into the traffic and back up in front of us, and he turned around and looked at us up and down.  And then he said, "I likes that.  I really likes that.  That's good.  That's real good."  And then he turned around, and off down the street in front of us, mumbling to himself, "That's good.  That's good.  I likes it." Well, we got back to our yard and sitting there in the garden, and I was chuckling over it.  You know, I'm happy for the affirmation.  And then, all of a sudden, I said to myself or who knows, I said, "God, could you talk through a half-inebriated old derelict?"  And I said yes, it's God that says, "I likes that."  And, Lord, if you like it, that's all I need. Dennis: Yeah, yeah.  You know, I read that story, and I thought, "Isn't it interesting how God could use such an unlikely source?"  If he could speak through a donkey, he could speak through a man who is drunk.  So you don't have any sense, as a result, that you're on the bench; that you're on the sidelines? Robertson: I do have a great sense that He didn't need me in that game, but I never did think I was essential, anyway, you know?  In the big scope of things, what is my little contribution?  God doesn't need me.   Dennis: It's not been easy loving Muriel since that time.  I mean, you share a story about how Muriel had an accident near the toilet, and you were cleaning up the toilet, and you lost it with her. Robertson: Yes.  You're saying that I have not always acted in love.   Dennis: I didn't say that.  You wrote about it. Robrtson:  I understand, but that's what your question was. Dennis: What happened that day in the bathroom? Robertson: Well, that was back when we hadn't gone to diapers, and she was still – tried to make it in time to the toilet, but she hadn't made it, so I was kneeling there trying to clean up the mess, and she kept trying to help and making matters worse and kept moving her feet and her legs, and I said, "Stand still."  And she didn't stand still.  So just that short temper, I just slapped her on the calf.  Not really a hard slap, but she was startled, because it had never happened before.  I had never touched her.  And it startled me.  And I just dropped there on my knees in that mess and pled with her for forgiveness.  Well, she couldn't understand words anymore than she could speak them, but I pled with her for forgiveness, and then I decided I better turn to the Lord, and I cried out to Him to forgive me. Bob: Robertson, you know that a man – there's great fulfillment in your work when you're employed vocationally, when you're doing what you feel like God called you to do and what He gifted you to do.  There is a sense of reward and accomplishment and fulfillment.  To make a decision to lay that aside and go home and do what God's calling you to do now, it's got to feel a little bit like being moved out of your natural gifting and strength to the sidelines, like you said.  There have to be days when you go, "I want to be back in the hunt." Robertson: Yes, but remember, Bob, I didn't think up that question.  It never occurred to me until that freshman asked me.  That got me on that track to thinking just the one night until God gave me the answer the next morning.  So, no, I didn't, really, and maybe occasionally when decisions are made in the school that I wouldn't have made that way. [laughter]  Dennis: You know, I'm thinking, Bob, of how, by all practical observations, to the average human being, you'd think here's a man who has been sidelined.  And yet if you think about it, his story has been told to more people.  We've shared it here on the broadcast probably two or three times to several million people.  We have shared it at FamilyLife Marriage Conferences.  It's been shared at Promise Keepers event.  I know personally that I've shared it at a Promise Keepers event with more than 60,000 men at Texas Stadium a number of years ago and then again in Colorado Springs to another 10,000, 12,000 men, and, Robertson, when I read that story the first time, I got on the phone, and I called Barbara.  And, Bob, I could tell this story right now but, instead, I wonder if we couldn't go to a clip where Barbara shares what her response was when I told her your story, Robertson, and read her your words of resigning from Columbia Bible College and Seminary to go home and care for your wife, Muriel.  Barbara: [from audiotape.]  I was standing in the laundry room, and I was ironing.  Dennis called on the phone, and he read me that story, and I stood by the phone, and I was watering the clothes, like I'm watering the notes right now, and he said, "Should I tell that story?"  And I said, "Yes."  I said, "I just have one question."  I said, "I need to know will you love me like that?"  And he said,  "Yes."   There's not a woman in this room who doesn't want to know the answer to that question.  There's not a woman in this room who doesn't need to hear from her husband "Yes, I will love you like that."  That is a demonstration of commitment and of covenant.  It's what we were made for, it's what we long for, it's what we need.  God built it in us. Dennis: Robertson, as Barbara was retelling that story, I still remember where I was standing when I called her, and I was unprepared for her question.  It really caught me off guard.   Robertson:  I imagine.  Dennis: You've told the story a number of times – this is what women want to know, isn't it? Robertson: You know, I've not told the story a great many times, but I've written about it, and what you have said has happened over and over again.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard that same scenario.  But, unlike your scenario, often, as it's reported to me, his response is "Don't put me on the spot."  Sometimes it's half jest; often it's dead serious.   Dennis: Well, when Barbara asked me the question, I was stunned for a moment.  I mean, I was sharing a story, and it was obviously emotional for me to share it.  Her emotional response, first of all, took me off guard, and I remember saying to her, "Yes.  With God as my witness, I would hope I would be that man."  And He is the one who enables, isn't he?  I'm looking across the table at you, and you've shared, over the past couple of days, He has been the one who has enabled you to make that commitment. There is a verse that I have been wanting to share over the past couple of days on the broadcast that I want to read here.  It's found in Job, chapter 23, verses 10 through 12 – "But He knows the way I take.  When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.  My foot has held fast to His path.  I have kept His way and not turned aside.  I have not departed from the command of His lips.  I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food."   When you think about hunger, whether it's ambition, whether it's career or a job and what we would characterize as success in life, this book, the Bible, this talks about how to live in the blessing, how to live life as God designed it.  And when you step outside of it, when you break your promise, you're stepping outside of that blessing.  You're a blessed man today because you have stayed within the confines of the commands of this book, and you are attempting to live life according to His Word. Robertson: Well, I am blessed, that I will say – not that I deserve it, but I am blessed. Bob: That's part 2 of a conversation recorded back in 1999 with Dr. Robertson McQuilkin.  At that time, Dennis, he had been at home caring for his wife for almost a decade, and she lived another four years before she went into eternity.  He was faithful to care for her all the way to the end. Dennis: Yes.  Think of celebrating a golden anniversary in a setting like that.  And the question I have for the listener is do you want to be a blessed man?  Do you want to be a blessed woman?  The little statement, don't let it run past you too quickly, this book, the Scripture, living according to the boundaries that it places and the relationship with Almighty God that it represents, that's how you live a blessed life.  Even in the midst of tragedies, deep disappointment, and profound suffering, you can be a blessed man, a blessed woman. Bob: And one of the questions is are we ready for those trials when they come?  You know, Dr. McQuilkin was ready because of his relationship with Christ that had been built over the years.  The question is what kind of foundation we going to have when the winds come in our direction, and one of the reasons we've encouraged couples to attend a Weekend to Remember Marriage Conference for many years is because that's part of how you build your foundation.  You keep coming back to what the Scriptures teach about marriage, about resolving conflict, about sexual intimacy, about communication, about what a husband's responsibility is, what a wife's responsibility is. These are topics that get addressed each weekend at our FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Conference, and we're about to launch our fall season.  We want to encourage our listeners – if you've never attended one of these conferences, go on our website at FamilyLife.com, or call 1-800-FLTODAY, find out when the conference is coming to a city near where you live, and make plans now to be a part of that weekend, to make the investment of time and resources to get away and build into the foundation of your marriage so that when you face challenges and struggles, you're ready for them. Again, if you'd like more information about the Weekend to Remember Marriage Conference, you'll find it online at FamilyLife.com, or you can call us at 1-800-FLTODAY, you can register online or by phone, and remember when you get in touch with us as well to consider getting a copy of the book that Dr. McQuilkin wrote about his love for Muriel.  A book called "A Promise Kept."  It will give you additional insight into his relationship with his wife and his love for her. You can request a copy of the book from our website at FamilyLife.com or call 1-800-FLTODAY to find out how you can have a copy of the book, "A Promise Kept," sent to you. We hope you will keep in mind that FamilyLife Today is a listener-supported ministry.  That means that it's folks like you who not only listen to this program but who, from time to time, will call and make a donation to help support the ministry of FamilyLife Today.  You are the ones who keep us on the air on this station and on other stations across the country.  You need to know that summer months are often a difficult time for ministries like ours.  The expenses of operating the ministry stay pretty much the same, but we see a decline in donations during the summer months, and that has been the case again this summer. So if there is anything you can do to help with a donation to support FamilyLife Today this month, we would love to hear from you, and we want you to be sure to request a copy of Dennis and Barbara Rainey's book, "Moments With You."  It's a daily devotional guide for couples that we'd love to send you as a thank you gift when you make a donation of any amount this month for the ministry of FamilyLife Today. If you're donating online, and you'd like a copy of the book "Moments With You," type the word "You," y-o-u, into the keycode box you'll find on the donation form, or call 1-800-FLTODAY, make your donation over the phone and simply request a copy of the devotional book for couples, "Moments With You."  We're happy to send it to you, and we do appreciate your support of FamilyLife Today. Now, tomorrow we'll continue to hear from Dr. Robertson McQuilkin as he describes what life was like and how it changed when he came home to care for his wife, Muriel.  I hope you can be with us for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.  On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.  We'll 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.  __________________________________________________________We are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider donating today to help defray the costs?Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com          

A Promise Kept (Part 1) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 2) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 3) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 4) - Robertson McQuilkinFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. A Promise KeptDay 1 of 4 Guest:                        Robertson McQuilkin From the series:       My Decision, Part 1   Bob: Robertson McQuilkin clearly remembers the first time he realized something was wrong with his wife, Muriel. Robertson: We were driving with these friends, and Muriel started to tell a story.  She liked to tell stories and laugh at her own stories.  She had a marvelous, outrageous life – infectious.  So she started this story, which she had just told five minutes earlier.  This is a pretty, you know, four- or five-minute story.  And I said, "Honey, you just told us that.  This is a rerun."  And she just laughed and went right on.  And I thought, "Hey, that's funny.  That never happened before."  But then it began to happen with ever-greater frequency and, of course, we hadn't even heard the name Alzheimer's. [musical transition]  Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, August 11th.  Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  Today we hear the first part of a powerful love story.  Stay tuned. [musical transition]  And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Monday edition.  I know one of the questions you get asked frequently – I get asked the same question – is when you think back over now almost 16 years of doing FamilyLife Today what are some of your favorite radio interviews?  And I think what our listeners are going to get a chance to hear this week has to be up in the top tier of programs we've ever had the privilege of doing. Dennis: And I thought you were going to say, Bob, one of the Top 10. Bob:  Well, it's certainly one of the Top 10, maybe even higher than that, don't you think? Dennis: No doubt about that.  Robertson McQuilkin is a rare man.  He is a world-renowned biblical theologian who has served internationally as a missionary.  He was, for a number of years, president of Columbia International University; has spoken worldwide; written a number of books.  But the real story our listeners are about to hear is Robertson's love for his wife, Muriel, who – well, more than 10 years from the time of this interview had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and he was caring for her and, in fact, had resigned from his position as president of the seminary and college, and he went home to take care of her.  And it's just a great love story. Bob:  It is a powerful story and, again, this interview goes back now almost nine years, but it's one of those interviews that we pull out and listen to ourselves over and over again, and we wanted our listeners to hear it as well.  Here is part 1 of our conversation with Dr. Robertson McQuilkin. Dennis: Robertson, you and your wife, Muriel, met and dated during the year I was born – 1948.  That kind of dates me here a little bit. Robertson: It dates me. Dennis: Tell us about the love story originally.  How did you meet Muriel and how did you propose to her? Robertson: Well, we were both students at what was then Columbia Bible College.  Now it's Columbia International University.  And I thought she was the cutest thing.  Somebody asked me on a television show whether it was love at first sight, and I said, "No."  I liked her at first sight, but I was only 17 years old – 16 when we first met.  But in our chapel, which was required, she sat in front of me, and when I watched her lovely, artistic fingers going through the hair, lovely brown hair, I just wanted to go out and see what she was like, and I discovered she was delightful – just smart and gifted and just a great lover of people and more fun than you can imagine. Bob: Now, did you just tap her on the shoulder in chapel and say, "Would you go out for a Coke with me on Friday night? Robertson: Well, I talked to her afterwards.  We were in conversation before, but, I mean, that really got me going. Dennis: So you proposed – how'd you do that? Robertson: It happened several times. Dennis: It took you a while to win Muriel's love, huh? Robertson: I think she was faking it, actually.  But, at any rate, yes.  The first time was in the lobby of the school, and she had this – she wouldn't hold hands or kiss or anything, and I said, "Let me hold your hand, I want to tell you something."  And she said, "Well, tell me what you're going to tell me."  But she let me hold her hand, and I told her I loved her, and that was the first time. Dennis: Yeah, and you told her you wanted her to be your wife? Robertson: I didn't say that much, but she got the drift.  But we decided afterwards, since we were young – and I guess a lot of people, after they propose, then they have misgivings.  So we decided to be sure it was God's will that we put it on hold for six months, and I went to seminary, and she went to teach in a school.  So we didn't have any contact for six months.  And they say that distance will blow out a little flame and fan a big one.   So at the end of that time – I went to Bluefield, West Virginia to see her, and it was on Valentine's Day 1947 – the day before Valentine's Day, and that's when I had my ring and asked her to marry me, and she said, "Well, I've got to pray about it."  She knew all along what she was going to do.  Through the years I'd accuse her, I'd say, "You just did that so we could get engaged on Valentine's Day." [laughter]  Bob: Well, you had to be a little nervous, driving up to Bluefield, West Virginia.  You haven't seen her in six months, and you're carrying the ring, and did you wonder whether that little flame had been blown out or whether the big flame was still fanned? Robertson: Well, I don't know, I was pretty confident, I guess. Dennis: Really? Robertson: She'd sent me all kinds of signals.  I think it was her idea in the first place. Dennis: Well, you begin your book, "A Promise Kept," some 30 years later with the story of you all spending some time at a friend's house in Florida.  And something occurred there that was the beginning of a period of suffering and drama that continues on to this day. Robertson: We were driving with these friends, and Muriel started to tell a story.  She liked to tell stories and laugh at her own stories.  She had a marvelous, outrageous laugh – infectious.  So she started this story, which she had just told five minutes earlier.  It was a pretty – you know, four- or five-minute story.  I said, "Honey, you just told us that.  This is a rerun," and she just laughed and went right on.  And I thought, "Hey, that's funny, that never happened before."  But then it began to happen with ever-greater frequency and, of course, we hadn't even heard the name Alzheimer's back then, I don't think. Dennis: How old was Muriel at that point? Robertson: Fifty-five.  But if we had known about Alzheimer's, it's an old-folks' disease and wouldn't have connected it with her, anyway.   Bob: When did you get to a point where you said, "There's something going on here?" Robertson: Well, actually, she went into the hospital for a heart examination.  It proved to be nothing, but then the young – I guess he was an intern – a very young doctor, I'd never met him, he called me out into the hall, and he said, "You may want to consider Alzheimer's."  And I was shocked, but that started the wheels turning, and about two yeas after that, in '83, we went to a neurologist friend who, by the process of elimination, concluded that that's probably what it was. Dennis: How did you handle the news that your wife of less than 60 years of age could have a disease that was progressive, and you were watching it manifest itself in various ways – how did you personally handle it at that point? Robertson: Well, of course, there's a sense of loss, but it wasn't a crisis experience because we knew something was up.  One time on a TV program, a man said, "What has God done miraculously to enable you to love her so and to hang in there and be patient," so forth?  And I said, "I don't like the question.  What if I said, 'I like you, but the only reason is that God has worked a miracle to enable me to like somebody so unlikable.'  I said you wouldn't like that.  I love her because she's lovable, she's altogether lovable."  So it's never been something I try to pump up or something like that. Dennis: I want to stop you right there – "She is altogether lovable."  She hasn't spoken a word to you in how many years? Robertson: Oh, six, I guess. Dennis: Six years. Robertson: Yes. Dennis: Help me here – there are some of our listeners who want to say, "Robertson, she is altogether lovable." Robertson: She is sweet, she's contented, she's totally dependent on me, and I just – from all the background of the wonderful years that we spent together, I have all the memories, and it's just a joy to see that I can make a difference in her life. Bob: You understand the challenge.  I mean, a lot of people listening are thinking six years of being bedfast and not speaking sounds more like something you endure than something you enjoy. Robertson: I guess it depends on your outlook.  If you consider yourself a victim, and you'd rather be – you know, I never think about "what if."  I don't think "what if" is in God's vocabulary.  So I don't even think about what I might be doing instead of changing her diaper or what I might be doing instead of spending two hours feeding her.  It's the grace of God, I'm sure, like you said, Dennis, but it also may be the way I'm wired to live the now and not live in the past or live in the future. Dennis: In the midst of all these things starting to progress in her life, you write in your book that she did not know what was happening to her. Robertson: No, she didn't.  One thing about forgetting is you forget that you forgot, and so she never seemed to suffer too much with it.  She would know that she'd failed.  She may be desperate to please or to make something happen the way it's supposed to, the way it always had, and it didn't – but only momentarily, and then she'd laugh at herself and have another go at it.  That was her personality, it always had been. Bob: Did you, at some point, say to her, "Sweetheart, you've been diagnosed with Alzheimer's?" Robertson: I never told her.  I asked my doctor if it was okay not to, because some people in the field say that you should walk through it together, but Muriel really lived for me, and I knew that if she realized what was going to happen that this would be very painful for her.  So I asked him, and he said, "No, if she doesn't ask and isn't concerned, then just let it go."  So she never really – she knew she was having problems, but she didn't know the diagnosis. Dennis: I happen to know right now that there is a person who is staying with Muriel – your daughter, Marty. Robertson: Yes. Dennis: And Marty makes it possible for you to be able to make an occasional trip like this – a day trip – as you've had here to FamilyLife and to share your story with us.  I'd like to call Marty on the phone, because she has watched you, as her father and the husband of her mother, make a remarkable commitment to her mother and to your wife.  And she wrote a poem in the back of your book that – what I want to do, Bob, is I want to call Marty on the phone, and I just want to get a little bit of a glimpse from a child, an adult child, of what this has meant to her and have her share this poem with our listeners. Bob: I think we're working to get her on the line right now – let's see. Dennis: Is this Marty? Marty: Yes. Dennis: This is Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine on FamilyLife Today. Marty:            Uh-huh. Dennis: How are you doing? Marty:            Just fine, thank you. Dennis: We're here in the studio with your Dad.  Why don't you say hi to your Dad? Marty:            Hi, Dad. Robertson: Hi, Martykins. Dennis: He said you love surprises, so we decided we would surprise you. Marty:            Yes, this is a surprise. Dennis: You're there taking care of your mom, right? Marty:            Uh-huh, yes. Dennis: How is she doing today? Marty:            She's doing fine. Robertson: Any smiles? Marty:            Well, no, I don't think so.  But she's taking her time with her lunch still. Dennis: I've just got a couple of things I want you to do.  First of all, we're sharing with our listeners just a remarkable commitment by a husband to his wife.  What's your perspective on that as one who is looking at a man who is committed to your mother? Marty:            Well, of course, I grew up in this family with the two of them, and they always were in love.  I mean – the two of them were always kissing and hugging in the kitchen and in the living room and in the hallway.  I mean – my memory from my childhood is two people that were always – not only did they love one another, but they were in love.  They really thought that each other set the moon, and so it didn't surprise me at all.  I mean, this, to me, is just the natural thing that would happen with these two particular people.  All she ever wanted was to be with him, and all he ever wanted was to be with her, and it never changed, never diminished.  I mean, you know, they had disagreements, and they had discussions and things, but it didn't affect the relationship.  So, to me, this is just the way it ought to be, you know what I'm saying? Robertson: Thank you, Marty. Dennis: Marty, you've written a poem that Robertson put in his book, "A Promise Kept," and I shared with our listeners a few moments ago that we were calling you to ask you a question but also to read this poem that you wrote as a Christmas gift in 1994.  Would you mind – see if you can't find a copy of the book there in the house somewhere and read it to our listeners.  Would you mind doing that? Marty:            Okay, hold on a minute, here.  I'm not sure where in the book it is. Dennis: It's page 72, Marty. Marty:            Okay –  "Wild roses grew in Mother's mind, Seeds fell from her hands, and laughter ran like a mountain brook out of her heart to water our gardens.  She gathered stones and sunlight, moonbeams and melodies; no smallest bit of loveliness was passed without the sweet caress of her happy recognition.  She gleefully uprooted pretense and tossed it in the sea.  She danced and ran where others walked, and now the snow falls deep around the place she spun and shone, scattering godlight from her hair." I don't know if when you were talking to Dad, he described the kind of person Mother was, but she was imperturbable, loved life, and totally disliked any sort of inauthenticity or elitism.  She would think nothing, if she saw a beautiful house, of walking up and ringing the doorbell and asking the owner if she could look through it because she thought it was so beautiful.  She embarrassed us enormously. And she did – she collected rocks, she collected flowers.  I mean, when she would be walking along and see dead flowers along the side of the road, she would collect the seeds from them and bring them home and plant them.   And she would sing.  She would sing if she was washing dishes, she would sing to us when she wanted us to do something instead of asking us.  She had her little songs that she would sing to get us to come and help her sweep the floor or whatever.  So I see her as a garden that is covered with snow, but is not gone. Robertson:  Yes, yes. Bob: Marty, thanks for taking time out to share with our listeners a little bit about your dad and your mom.  We appreciate it. Dennis: Yes, Marty, thank you for setting us straight, because we'll not refer to him as a saint or a hero anymore. Marty:            [laughs] Dennis: Bye-bye. Marty:            Bye. Bob: You know, I had to hear a little bit in Marty's laugh some of what Robertson has described as that infectious laugh of Muriel. Dennis: And you think, Bob, of what a daughter has seen as she has watched this love story emerge.  I think one of the most profound statements she made is that, "Hey, what's abnormal about this?  This was always the commitment, always the love that we saw in our home from day one.  So what's the big deal?"   Well, it just looks like a big deal today, because there's not enough faithful men and women like Robertson and Muriel who are faithfully loving one another, and, Robertson, I know you don't like the attention but, nonetheless, I'm truly grateful that you have continued to weather the storm, even to this day, 22 years later, and that your love stands strong and firm and steadfast for a woman that you love – present tense. Bob: You know, I hate to break it to you, but I don't think you kept your word to Marty.   I think you have referred to her dad as a hero. Dennis:  Yes, I really have. Bob: On more than one occasion. Dennis: I really have, and I still refer to Dr. McQuilkin as a hero, because – well, it's what Marty observed.  It's just a great love story.  I mean, Hollywood tries it, but they seldom get it right, and this is just a magnificent and may I use the word "holy?"  Just a holy story of a man attempting to nourish and cherish his wife in the midst of a disease that was robbing her of her personality and her memory and ultimately of her life. Bob:  And it's stories like this that we need to be reminded of from time to time.  That's one of the reasons we wanted our listeners to hear it – some of them for the first time, and some of them hearing it again.  But, you know, this is one of those stories you ought to listen to again and again.   I was thinking about the couples who have attended our FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences, and it may have been four or five years or longer since they have been to a conference, and they may be thinking, you know, "I've been there done that, don't need to repeat that experience." And yet I think all of us need to be reminded regularly of what sacrificial love and service look like in a marriage relationship.  We need to be reminded of what God's calling us to and how we can build the kind of marriage relationship that can go the distance. We are about to kick off our fall season of FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences here next month, and we're starting to hear from listeners who are getting the dates, blocking out the weekend, and making plans to attend one of these two-and-a-half-day conferences designed to help couples strengthen and deepen their marriage relationship, to provide help, to provide hope, and to give them a fun, relaxing getaway. For many couples, it's a refresher or a tuneup.  For some couples, it's a turning point in their marriage.  And I want to point our listeners to our website, FamilyLife.com.  You can go online and get more information about the fall season of Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences.  I was just visiting with a friend, and he was asking about locations and dates, and I was recommending some spots where he and his wife may want to travel to attend one of these conferences.  If you'd like more information, go online at FamilyLife.com.  You can go ahead and block out the date and register now for one of these upcoming conferences, or if it's easier just call us at 1-800-FLTODAY with any questions you have, or if you'd like to register over the phone, again, it's 1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY or online, again, you'll find us at FamilyLife.com. And when you get in touch with us, be sure to request a copy of Dr. McQuilkin's books, which is called "A Promise Kept."  It gives you additional insight into the heart and the character of this man.  We have copies of the book, "A Promise Kept," and you can request them from us either online at FamilyLife.com or when you call 1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY. Let me also encourage you – I think one of the ways you can strengthen your own relationship is by spending time together each day praying and talking together about what the Scriptures say about your marriage relationship, and I know a lot of couples would like to be able to do that and don't feel equipped to be able to do that.  This month when you make a donation of any amount for the ministry of FamilyLife Today, we would love to send you as a thank you gift a copy of the book by Dennis and Barbara Rainey called "Moments With You."  In this book, Dennis and Barbara provide you with a daily devotional that's designed to bring you together, to give you an opportunity to pray together and to look at God's word together and to help you grow closer together as a result. Again, the book, "Moments With You," is our way of saying thank you when you support the ministry of FamilyLife Today with a donation this month of any amount.  If you're making your donation online at FamilyLife.com, when you come to the keycode box on the donation form, type in the word "You," y-o-u, and we'll send you a copy of Dennis and Barbara's daily devotional or call 1-800-FLTODAY, you can make a donation over the phone and just ask for a copy of the devotional, moments with you, or Dennis and Barbara's devotional book.  Again, we're happy to send it to you, and we appreciate your financial support of this ministry. Tomorrow we're going to hear part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Robertson McQuilkin, and you will hear is very moving comments that he made to students the day he stepped down from his responsibilities as president at Columbia Bible College and Seminary.  That's coming up tomorrow, and I hope you can be back with us for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.  On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.  We'll see you back tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today.  FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas – help for today; hope for tomorrow. _______________________________________________________________We are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider donating today to help defray the costs?Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com          

A Promise Kept (Part 1) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 2) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 3) - Robertson McQuilkinA Promise Kept (Part 4) - Robertson McQuilkinFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. A Promise KeptDay 3 of 4 Guest:                        Robertson McQuilkin From the series:       What God Has Done______________________________________________________________________Bob: In the late 1980s, Robertson McQuilkin's wife Muriel was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  Over time, her condition became worse and worse.  Here is Dr. McQuilkin. Robertson: It's like I was traveling away from her in the olden days, and I would recount our times together, our love times, our fun times, our crisis times.  I'd rehearse those, and it was just delightful.  It was like I was there.  I was living it over again.  And so now I'm on a little longer journey.   Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Wednesday, August 13th.  Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  We'll hear about a long journey and about a promise kept on today's program.   And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Wednesday edition.  Often, when I have theh opportunity to speak at one of our FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences, which I'm going to be doing in Philadelphia, by the way, coming up in November.  I'm looking forward to going in early for a cheesesteak and then spending a weekend at the conference in Philadelphia. Dennis: We'll have more than 60 of these events throughout the fall.  And I just want to say, Bob, and excuse me for interrupting here, but … Bob: That's all right.  I'll just think about the cheesesteak, you go ahead. Dennis: I know, I know, you're all over the cheesesteak and trying to find a Cheesecake Factory to go visit.  Number 70 – or which one is it now? Bob: It will be close to that by the time we get there, I think. Dennis:  Number 70 – think about that, folks.  Anyway, this is serious.  We've got to get – we've got to have intervention for Bob, I think. But, you know, I run into listeners all the time who have been listening to FamilyLife Today, some for a few months, some for several years who still have not been to a Weekend to Remember Marriage Conference or those who went a number of years ago and whose lives have dramatically changed because of just the water that's under the bridge.  And it's time, folks, it's time to go back, it's time to get a wheel alignment and to go take a weekend, a Friday night, all day Saturday, half-day Sunday, to sit and soak and have some fun, build some romance, build your relationship.  You're not going to be asked to do anything publicly.  You're just going to have a blast together as a couple.   I just want to ask you a question – when it the last time you really did something great for your marriage?  And if that means going to Philadelphia to hear Bob, then join him at the Cheesecake Factory and get over there, but get to one of our 60 Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences this fall and take advantage of what I believe is the finest biblical training in the world on marriage and family. Bob: You feel pretty strongly about this, don't you? Dennis: I do.  I've given my adult life to strengthen marriages and families, and I don't know of a better weekend for couples to spend.  It's going to enrich their marriage with the right thing. Bob: Well, what I was starting to say was that whenever I get the chance to speak at one of these Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences, I tell folks about Dr. Robertson McQuilkin and share with them his example of sacrificial, unconditional, 'til death do us part love that he demonstrated for his wife, Muriel.  Dennis: One of the things you've said that has kept you going are all the memories – memories of her wit and kind of how she would flash back at you.  And there is one story I want you to share with our listeners where she rebuked you.  That's just a classic story that I think points out the differences between men and women in a beautiful way. Robertson: I think you're referring to the time we were – in the evening in bed discussing some earth-shaking theme, which I do not remember.  And I was just demolishing her arguments with superb logic.   Dennis: Are you saying you were arguing with her? Robertson: Discussing.  If I ever do seem to be prevailing in a situation like that, then I start feeling bad about it.  But she didn't wait for any sympathy or pity.  She just reared up on one elbow and flashed those gray-green eyes at me, and she said, "Well, let me tell you something.  Logic's not everything, and feeling's not nothing." Dennis: When I read that story, I thought, "That is a great statement," especially for a man to hear.   Bob: You know, those stories, and Dennis talked about how there is comfort in those memories, but I would think, mixed in with the comfort of those memories, would be an ongoing sense of loss.  I mean, that's how she was.  But that's not how she's been over the last seven years. Robertson: No.  It's like I was traveling away from her in the olden days, and I would recount our times together, our love times, our fun times, our crisis times.  I'd rehearse those, and it was just delightful.  It was like I was there.  I was living it over again.  And so now I'm on a little longer journey, or she's on a journey, and, no, it's pure pleasure to recount those. Now, if I was wire up, if I was programmed in my head so that I was thinking about, "Oh, but I don't have this anymore," "Oh, but what if it hadn't been this way," then, sure, I could get bent out of shape.  And I don't take any credit for it.  I give the Lord credit for anything good that I ever think or do, but I don't feel any immediate intervention on God's part.  It's just that's not the way I am.  I know you'd like to have me feel an agony and a pain and a wrestling and a battle, because that would help a lot of people, and I wish I could, but, frankly, that's not been my experience. Bob: Well, you don't ever go to bed at night and pray and say, "Lord, just tomorrow, one day, where it's like it used to be." Robertson: I've never done that.  When I go to bed at night I thank the Lord for my sweetheart, and she's just lying there – actually, when she's asleep, it's just like the old days and I say, "Lord, keep watch over in the night and don't let her have any bad dreams.  Speak peace to her spirit."  My daughter, Marty, has a theory that the Holy Spirit bypasses the mental and the – since her brain is all tangled up, He just bypasses all that and speaks to her spirit.  Now, I don't know what the theology of that is, but I like it. Dennis: You know, in 1992, you did have a down period, though.  You had resigned your seminary post two years earlier, your eldest son had been killed in a diving accident, and your joy, in your own words, had "drained away."  And you said that your passion and your love for God had frozen over.  It took a retreat for you in a mountain hideaway to refresh that, and in the process of that you said, "The heavy heart is lifted on the wings of praise."  Explain that to our listeners. Robertson: I had discovered it earlier in life, but I'm a slow learner, and when I had these heavy blows, I wasn't asking God why.  I never asked why.  That's His business, and we're in a fallen world, and I often say, "Why not?  Why not me?  They're dying of cancer?"  So that wasn't a problem with me.  But I was just bunged up emotionally – all these poundings, and it was more like the passion had gone out of our relationship.  It was more like your number-one lover was silent, and I knew I was in … Dennis: You're speaking of your love for God at this point. Robertson: Yes, yes, and so I knew I was in trouble, and whenever I'm in trouble, big trouble, I try to get away for a few days of fasting and prayer.  So I went away, and it took me about 24 hours to pull my focus off of my own traumas and troubles and problems.  My faith at that point was more like resignation. Dennis: What do you mean by that? Robertson: In other words, "I'm resigned, okay, God, whatever you want, that's okay."  But it's not faith, it's not a buoyant tight connection with God.  It's not joy in your confidence and trust.  So – I finally got my thoughts away from that as I read the Psalms and as I sang the hymns.  I took a hymnbook with me.  And as I did and got my focus on Him and began to list all the things about Him I liked, all the wonderful things He's done in the world, all the wonderful things He's done for me, that's when I discovered a heavy heart lifts on the wings of praise.  So it was through praise that I was reconnected.  Of course, He'd never broken the connection, but I sort of got deaf. Dennis: You know, as you were talking, I was thinking about Psalm 103 – "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His Holy Name.  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle."  Now, you just hit on a profound theological principle that's taught throughout the Bible, and it's the theological principle of remembrance – that we need to recall what God has done, and if we forget what God has done, we'll forget to trust Him today.  We'll forget who He is, and we'll grumble in our tents. Robertson: I started to say, "Amen," but actually it's bad news if we do that, and that's one of the things God has been teaching me in recent times.  Back in the early days before I resigned, He taught me about love from a different end.  It was how much Muriel wanted to be with me; how much she depended on me; how she expressed all day long her affection for me, and her gratitude for every little thing. Dennis: Actually, she would go in search of you, right? Robertson: During that stage – we were half a mile away, the office from the home, and she would walk.  She's a speedwalker.  Sometimes she walked up to 10 times a day, round trip.  That would be 10 miles. Dennis: In search of you? Robertson: In search – coming to my office to find me – where I might be inaccessible, but she would come.  And one time I was helping her with her shoes, taking off her shoes at night, and her feet were bloody from all that walking.  And I thought to myself, "God, is that how I love you?  I must be with you no matter what it costs; to constantly express my love and my appreciation and my thanksgiving and my trust."  I'm secure in Him, and I asked Him to help me love Him the way she loved me. But now, of course, that's all gone.  I think she may be a little more content when I'm around, but she doesn't really know anything much.  What's subterranean, we don't know, but … Dennis: … she doesn't speak to you? Robertson: Not for about seven years, six years.  So He's taught me a lot about love for Him in my relationship with Muriel. Dennis: There was a moment, however, on a Valentine's Day, and the reason Valentine's Day is so important is it goes all the way back to when you proposed to her back in 1947. Robertson: Right, that's right. Dennis: Yes, so Valentine's Day had a very special meaning in your relationship. Robertson: Very special.  Actually, if you had a few hours, I'd tell you about some of those Valentine's Days.  Some of them were really extraordinary, but she had come to the place where she wasn't – couldn't say a sentence, and even words were just occasional, and they didn't always make good sense.  Sometimes "yes" when she meant "no," and so forth.   This particular Valentine's eve, I was contemplating an article I'd just read that said in Alzheimer's care, it's the caregiver that's the victim.  And I thought, "Hm, strange, I don't feel like a victim."  I never did feel like a victim.  I wonder why?  And she doesn't feel like a victim."  We sort of missed that.  And then I began rehearsing all these Valentine stories.   The next morning I was on my exercycle at the foot of the bed – I threw that away, I can't stand it. [laughter]  Bob: Amen. Robertson: But I do run.  At any rate, I was then on an exercycle, and when she woke up there, as she often did during those days, as soon as she saw me, she'd break into this big smile and, of course, that made my day.  Actually, when she smiles, I hang a flag out front so that my friends and neighbors can tell that's a smile day.  So this was a smile day, she smiled.  And while she was looking at me and smiling, she paused, and just as clear as a crystal chime, she said, "Love, love, love."   Oh, I hopped off the – I came over and hugged her, and I said, "Oh, honey, you really do love me, don't you?"  And she couldn't do words like she wanted to, of course.  She was looking for an affirmation, and she said I'm nice.  And almost the last words she ever said – about six or seven years ago. Bob: Do you wonder if – and I've heard this – I've heard of people who have been in comas for a long period of time and right before they go home they come back out, and they talk, and they're lucid.  Do you wonder, do you think ahead and think, "I wonder if I'll have that?" Robertson: One time when we were talking – my sister and I were talking about Muriel.  And – of course, she didn't understand, didn't know anything – and Amy said, "You know, when we get to heaven I wonder if she's going to say, 'You turkeys didn't think I knew what was going on, but I heard everything you said.'"   [laughter]  But, you see, the coma experience is quite common, at least you hear of it often, but that's a totally different physiological thing than having your neurons in tangles up there.  So, really, there's no connecting going on.  Of course, I'd love to have it, but I'm not waiting for it. Bob: Not holding out hope. Robertson: No. Bob: You know, it was not longer after Muriel died that Robertson wrote another article about her homegoing, and we have a link on our website at FamilyLife.com to the article that he wrote so that listeners can reflect on that transition in his life as well. I think the thing that just stands out and has always stood out to us is the remarkable character.  And, you know, Robertson always thought, "I'm not doing anything extraordinary or special.  I'm just doing what I promised to do."  And I guess the thing that makes it remarkable and extraordinary is because so few people today would do it with good cheer and with grace and with compassion and with sacrifice as he did it. Dennis:  And, you know, Bob, what he was talking about there at the end was really missing a relationship, missing being connected, heart-to-heart, mind-to-mind, soul-to-soul with Muriel, and that's what marriage is.  It's the mingling of two souls.  It's not just two bodies coming together.  Marriage is a commitment body, soul, and spirit, of two people to one another, husband and wife.   And I just want to take you back where we started the beginning of this broadcast when I exhorted our listeners to come to a Weekend to Remember because what we will help you do is reconnect body, soul, and spirit to one another because that's what makes a great marriage.  And if you haven't been to one of our conferences in a few years, or if you've never been, or if you're a single and contemplating marriage, there is no better way to invest in your marriage and the future of your family than to spend a weekend with us and to get the biblical blueprints for how two people can truly connect like Robertson was talking about.   Bob: We've got all of the information about the upcoming season of FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences on our website at FamilyLife.com.  It lists not only Philadelphia, where I'll be speaking, but, actually, we've got conferences East to West, North to South.  I was looking last night.  We're going to be in Palm Beach Gardens in Florida, and in Blaine, Washington, which is about as far north as you can go without being in Canada.  We're going to be in San Diego, California, and I saw we're going to be in New York state as well. If you'd like to find out when the conference is coming to a city near where you live, or a city you'd like to travel to, go to our website, FamilyLife.com, or call 1-800-FLTODAY, get the weekend blocked out on your calendar and then make reservations to attend one of our FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences when it comes to a city near you this fall. And be sure when you get in touch with us to request a copy of Dr. Robertson McQuilkin's book called "A Promise Kept."  I know couples who have given copies of this book as an anniversary gift.  It really is a great telling of a great love story, and you can find out how to request a copy when you go online at FamilyLife.com, or you can call us at 1-800-FLTODAY, and we'll make arrangements to have a copy of the book sent out to you. And then let me also ask you when you do get in touch with us, if you are able to help with a donation this month of any amount for the ministry of FamilyLife Today, we would like to send you a copy of Dennis and Barbara Rainey's devotional book, "Moments With You."  FamilyLife Today is listener-supported, and it's folks like you who help keep us on the air in this city and in other cities all across the country, and if you do make a donation this month, and you make it online, when you come to the keycode box on the donation form, just type the word "you" in there, y-o-u, and we'll know to send you a copy of the devotional from Dennis and Barbara, or call 1-800-FLTODAY.  You can make your donation over the phone.  That's 1-800-358-6329 and just ask for a copy of the devotional book from Dennis and Barbara Rainey, "Moments With You." And, again, let me say thank you for your financial support of the ministry.  We appreciate your partnership with us. You know, as we conclude today, one of the things that I think most impressed us in our conversation with Dr. McQuilkin was just his commitment to perseverance to finishing well and to doing the right thing, and he wrote a prayer that he included in his book, "A Promise Kept," called "Let Me Get Home Before Dark."   We asked him while he was here to share that prayer with our listeners.  Here again is Dr. McQuilkin.  Robertson:              It's sundown, Lord, the shadows of my life stretch back into the dimness of                        the years long spent.            I fear not death, for that grim foe betrays himself at last, thrusting me forever into life, life with You, unsoiled and free.            But I do fear                        I fear the dark specter may come too soon                        Or do I mean too late?                        That I should end before I finish or finish but not well?                        That I should stain Your honor.            Shame your name, grieve your loving heart.            Few, they tell me, finish well.            Lord, let me get home before dark.             The darkness of the spirit grown mean and small            Fruit shriveled on the vine bitter to the taste of my companions            Burdened to be borne by those brave few who love me still.            No, Lord, let the fruit grow lush and sweet            A joy to all who taste            Spirit's sign of God at work            Stronger, fuller, brighter at the end            Lord, let me get home before dark.             The darkness of tattered gifts, rust-locked, half spent or ill spent            A life that once was used of God now set aside.            Grief for glories gone or fretting for a task God never gave            Mourning in the hollow chambers of memory            Gazing on the faded banners of victories long gone            Cannot I run well unto the end?              Lord, let me get home before dark.             The outer me decays, I do not fret or ask reprieve            The ebbing strength but weans me from Mother Earth and grows me up for            heaven.            I do not cling to shadows cast by immortality,            I do not patch the scaffold lent to build the real eternal me,            I do not clutch about me my cocoon, vainly struggling to hold hostage a free spirit            pressing to be born.            But will I reach the gate in lingering pain            Body distorted, grotesque            Or will it be a mind wandering untethered among life fantasies or grim terrors?            Of your grace, Father, I humbly ask            Let me get home before dark. Bob: FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas – help for today; hope for tomorrow.  ___________________________________________________________________We are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider donating today to help defray the costs?Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com          

Tonight Rick Coste brings us the first of his new show Pixie! And our second feature is the latest of the EVP collection Wavefront Shorts with "Pets" starring the lads Rich Wentworth and Michael McQuilkin from Hadron Gospel Hour and produced by Rich Frolich of Texas Radio Theatre.

This week's episode is a conversation with podcast host/artist/musician Rich Wentworth. He is co-creator of the Hadron Gospel Hour podcast, a serialized sci-fi/comedy show about the adventures of a scientist who accidentally blows up the multiverse working on a way to weaponize the Hadron Collider. He and his partner Mike, played by co-creator Michael McQuilkin, jump in and out of the rift to visit different timelines and occasionally do battle with evil. The podcast also features sketch comedy, horror, and original music – Wentworth and McQuilkin are both musicians and songwriters. It's a hell of a good time, and an incredibly immersive audio environment. Wentworth is also an accomplished graphic artist. He's done album covers for Brian Setzer and comic book covers for IDW's ROM title and, it should be mentioned, designed the Department of Tangents logo. In the conversation, we talk about Wentworth's artistic influences and his aspirations in comics, which may include a Hadron adaptation somewhere down the line. We also get into how the Young Ones series influenced Hadron, the humanism of the Muppets, and so much more. Find out more about the podcast at the Hadron Gospel Hour site, and about Wentworth's art at his Spy Island Industries site. This episode also marks the two-year anniversary of the Department of Tangents Podcast. It kicked off on March 18, 2016 with EP1 featuring comedian and author Brian Kiley, whom I interviewed on the Universal lot in Los Angles where he works on Conan, and a featured track from musician Brendan Boogie, who would pop up again in EP6 as a guest talking about music and his latest movie, Sundown. It has been a joy to do this, and there is a lot more on the way – new stuff in featured tracks, including more audiobook excerpts, more short horror fiction, and of course, more interviews. Our featured track this week is “Kindness of Strangers” from Courtney Marie Andrews' new album May Your Kindness Remain, out today, March 23. Andrews has a rich, powerful voice, and this is an album to get excited about. Recommended if you like Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Jason Isbell, or Kathleen Edwards. Take a listen and check out Andrews at www.courtneymarieandrews.com.