30 conversations
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Dear LFTP: the incarcerated husband
- My husband is serving a life sentence and I have met someone new — what should I do?
- How would you counsel the incarcerated husband who wants to divorce his wife to free her from the marriage?
Mike reads a heavier letter: the writer's husband is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole, having turned himself in a year and a half ago for a crime from…
From No. 596 · Mr. Prayer Closet
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Dear LFTP: the mumbling husband and long-marriage patience
- How can I get my mumbling husband to speak up so I can hear him?
A woman 'amicably' married 16 years is exasperated that her husband mumbles, talks from other rooms, and won't speak up despite her normal hearing test.
From No. 567 · Talk Less
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Dear LFTP: the step-grandma title
- How should a step-grandparent handle being denied the 'grandma' title?
A letter from a woman whose husband's daughter decreed, eight years after the wedding, that her children may not call their step-grandmother 'grandma.'
From No. 466 · Put Your Name On It
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Dear LFTP: dating a grieving widower
- How can she help her grieving partner feel better about himself without replacing his late girlfriend?
A woman dating a man in his late fifties, still grieving his late girlfriend Vera after a tragic accident less than a year ago, asks how she can help him feel better about himself without replacing Vera.
From No. 423 · The GameStop Squeeze
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The patience of Jesus
- Is it possible for us to have the patience of Jesus?
Ben states the pattern: Jesus calls people to true things with patience, John the Baptist's 'brood of vipers' directness being the exception, and grows exasperated only with those who know the truth and refuse it.
From No. 407 · Can We Always Be Like Jesus?
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Dear LFTP: cashiers handing change in one wad
- Is there something I can do differently about cashiers handing my change back in one big wad?
A cash-paying listener is frustrated that cashiers hand back bills, coins, and receipt in one wad, forcing him to sort it at the counter while the next customer waits.
From No. 398 · Thus It Begins…COVID
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Dear LFTP: a recent grad asks how to help his unhealthy dad
- How do I intervene in my dad's unhealthy lifestyle (food, no exercise, smoking) without seeming disrespectful while living under his roof?
Mike reads a Dear LFTP letter: a recent college graduate living at home worries about his dad's food addiction, no exercise, and smoking, and asks how to intervene without seeming disrespectful.
From No. 373 · Don’t Wet Your Pants
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Dear LFTP: the serial dater
- Should I try harder to convince my friends this relationship is different, or just enjoy the love I am in?
A self-described serial dater, engaged once and proposed to three times, never in a relationship longer than a year, says she is four months into a love that feels different, but…
From No. 331 · Beg Your Pardon, Joel
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Dear LFTP: the dentist who talks politics
- My dentist talks politics while working on my teeth and I disagree with him — how should I handle it?
A listener writes that her longtime dentist has started talking politics during procedures; she disagrees with him but cannot respond with his hands in her mouth and fears spite if she speaks up.
From No. 275 · Under-Asking God
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Dear LFTP: compulsive talkers in their sixties
- How should I handle compulsive talkers who dominate conversations?
Mike reads the letter (pausing to ask Boova his age — '48'); the hosts chalk the behavior up to hearing loss and recommend patience, walking away, or a touch on the shoulder.
From No. 231 · Don’t Isolate in Christian Cliques
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Dear LFTP: 12-year-old likes a boy named Chris
- I'm 12 and like a boy named Chris at another school — how do I get in touch and tell him how I feel?
Dear LFTP letter from a 12-year-old girl who likes a boy named Chris at a different school, has flirted with him on and off for two years, will be reunited next year, and 'can't hold on much longer' — while Chris is at school with his ex.
From No. 225 · Seven Lies, Part Two
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Dear LFTP: the stepdaughter's spare room
- Am I being unreasonable asking to repurpose my stepdaughter's room now that she is off to college?
The Dear LFTP reader (speaker-1) reads a letter from a stepmother of eight years: her 18-year-old stepdaughter is off to college, and she wants to repurpose the girl's packed spare room while her husband, grieving the empty nest, says he needs time.
From No. 210 · What Do You Say to a Dying Teenager?
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Advice: patience, scripture memory, and the secular answer
The crew answers the letter. Boova (addressed by name) says he would ask whether the annoyance is general meanness under stress; don't just compliment the quirk, just don't say…
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Boova's house church story: bailing at the point of fruition
Boova tells the docket's second story: after a year and a half hosting a living-room house church with his wife Gianna, a three-week gap from travel and moving ended with nobody showing up one Sunday.
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Pope-style advice: stop asking for 'your will in my life'
Boova (speaker-0, addressed on-air as 'Buba'/'Pope Boob') gives his Pope-style advice on understanding God's will: God rarely reveals the whole plan — Jesus called the fishermen with just 'follow me,' no apostle job description.
From No. 371 · 40 and Out
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Six reasons you seriously need to slow down
- Does a hurried life destroy your relationship with God?
- How much control does the average man really have over slowing down given work, family, and church responsibilities?
The hosts walk through the Relevant article 'Six Reasons You Seriously Need to Slow Down.' They largely agree with the principle but push back on the practicality: a hurried life…
From No. 256 · Six Reasons to Slow Down
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The newborn, the longest Psalm, and patience
A host (speaker-1) shares a 'Jesus moment': up at 2:30 a.m. feeding his week-old daughter, having just read Proverbs and then the longest Psalm (Psalm 119) before bed, he decides…
From No. 5 · Something Different
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God is the opposite of efficient; David's long road
The hosts agree God is "the opposite of efficient," illustrated by David being chosen king yet waiting years, ruling half the nation, and being run out by his son before returning.
From No. 572 · Rippin’ Heaters
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Unmet expectations, timeframes, and not giving up on people
Ben (speaker-1) teaches from First Samuel (Hannah) that relational tension almost always comes from unmet expectations tied to unspoken timeframes: a wife asks her husband to take…
From No. 544 · Wisdom and Wonder
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1 Corinthians 13 — how you do it matters more than what you do
Ben (speaker-1) walks through 1 Corinthians 13, which he taught at home during a week his house church didn't gather: Paul's point that knowledge without love is nothing cuts Ben…
From No. 544 · Wisdom and Wonder
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Reason two: God is making you wait
The article's second reason — God is making you wait, citing Isaiah 40:31 — gets reframed: the hosts argue it is not God making someone wait as a tactic, it is simply not being…
From No. 527 · Angels and Blessings
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Response to the advice: clear the chaff, your plans stink
The hosts connect the advice to the earlier thread discussion: you cannot hear God speaking if you insist on having your own conversation — the chaff of your own plans, persistent sin, and self-talk.
From No. 371 · 40 and Out
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Ends and means: microwave spirituality
A host reflects on teaching the disciplines: it is an ends-and-means problem — people want spiritual maturity and connection with Christ but treat the disciplines as checklists or scheduled events.
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Don't pray for patience: fear, trust, and the driver's seat
From 'don't pray for patience' jokes to a serious thread: people hesitate to hand God the driver's seat because they fear what he'll root out or shove in.
From No. 305 · The Third Way Man