Marriage is a wonderful gift from God, but it requires some of our attention and focus

and care.

Even more effort is required in the case of remarages and step-families.

And our guests today will candidly describe remarriage and step-families as a grinding

process, but with careful nurturing and the work of God's spirit, those families can successfully

come together and will talk about how, on today's focus on the family.

Our host is focus-president and author Jim Daley and I'm John Fuller.

A John, here's a stat that should blow our minds.

Over 40% of homes in North America are made up of step-families or blended families.

40%.

That is a big number.

Unfortunately, research indicates that about 60% of those remarages end in divorce within

the first two years.

So it can be a really unstable environment and we'll talk more about that today.

A step-family might form after a divorce caused by infidelity or abandonment, maybe by an

unbelieving spouse or an abusive situation.

Remarage may also occur after the death of a spouse, whatever the circumstances we want

to share with you about how to strengthen your bonds in your marriage and your parenting.

And we're going to do that specifically with Gil and Brenda Stewart, who've been married

for 20 years, both of them coming from a first marriage and between them, they have seven

children.

And so we're going to learn a lot from them today.

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