Dear LFTP: telling Amy the truth about Jake
- How do I tell my seven-year-old daughter the truth about her absent biological father?
A Dear LFTP letter from a mother asks how to tell her seven-year-old daughter Amy why her biological father Jake never visits, now that her adoptive father has formally adopted her. The consensus is radical honesty at her level: don't soften the blow, don't call him a jerk, but don't lie — illustrated with a story of a foster child who discovered the lie at eighteen and saw the family fall apart. Roloff cites adoption into Christ and 1 John 4:18 ('perfect love casts out fear'), and Secular advises staged, age-appropriate answers and warns Amy may search for Jake online as a teen.
More on Grace
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Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
- Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
A host asks whether following Jesus should feel more comfortable as time goes on — noting the low-level tension many feel around am-I-doing-enough and the stigma that contentment equals laziness.
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Dear LFTP: the friend group's new wife
- How do we tell the husband that they are not invited, and who should deliver the message?
A host reads a second Dear LFTP letter: ten college-friend couples are planning a once-in-a-lifetime cruise, and nobody wants the remarried friend's demanding new wife on the ship.
From No. 592 · Because I Got High
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Dear LFTP: the $600 lawnmower and buying them a mower
- My nephew's wife took my $600, lied about it, and is avoiding me. Should I say something or let it go?
Mike reads a letter from someone who gave a nephew's wife $600 for a self-propelled lawnmower; she spent it, never bought the mower, and now avoids them.
From No. 587 · Coffee After Sunday
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Dear LFTP: the $900 couch letter
- My best friend and her son (about a thousand pounds combined) cracked my new $900 couch and want to bring more family over — what do I do?
Mike reads the second letter (same anchor/merge note): the writer bought a new house and a $900 couch; her best friend and the friend's son — 'about a thousand pounds' combined — audibly cracked it and now want to bring more family.