Marriage After God

Matthew Efird is a husband, father of four boys, business owner, and author of Even Though We Will, a book written from a dad's perspective on child loss. In 2019, he and his wife Hannah learned their second son, Noah, had trisomy 13, a lethal diagnosis, and in March 2020 they held him for 57 and a half hours before saying goodbye. In this conversation with Aaron, Matthew traces how the ordinary rhythms of faith, mentorship, and community they had built for years became the ground they stood on when the news came, and why everybody grieves, but not everybody mourns well. He shares the question their neonatologist asked that protected their marriage, the family slogan born out of the book of Job, and the two questions he and Hannah learned to ask each other in place of "Are you okay?" Whether you are walking through loss yourself or trying to love someone who is, this episode offers a picture of what it looks like to trust God when it hurts.

Brad Rhoads spent the first year of his marriage convinced his wife's unhappiness was her problem — until two men in his church told him he was succeeding at the things that mattered least and failing at the things that mattered most. He's now a pastor, author of The Grace Marriage (Moody Publishers), and the founder of Grace Marriage, a ministry equipping churches with ongoing marriage discipleship. In this conversation, Aaron and Brad discuss the difference between a performance-based marriage — where love is given and withdrawn based on behavior — and a grace-based marriage built on the gospel. They cover why the church has largely abandoned the space between premarital counseling and marital crisis, how resting in God's grace changes the way you love your spouse, and what it looks like when a couple's marriage is so genuinely fun that younger couples come asking for counsel.

Jennifer Pepito has been married 36 years, homeschooled seven children for 30 years, and written The Inspired Homeschool — but a clarifying moment in her story came when her grown daughter told her what actually caused trauma growing up. It wasn't the hard circumstances. It was the conflict between her parents. In this conversation, Jennifer and Aaron walk through what chronic complaining does to a husband, how unresolved fear and disconnection create an atmosphere children absorb even when no one is talking about it, and what it actually looks like to cultivate a joy-filled, thankful home in the middle of genuinely difficult seasons. They also make the case for homeschooling — why the public school standard was never the right measuring stick, and why parents who feel unqualified are closer to ready than they think. For any couple that wants to build something better inside their home, this episode is a good place to start.

Dr. Genee Francis is a licensed therapist and Assistant Director of Content and Programming for Windshaped Marriage — and after 18 years of marriage, two kids, a two-year estate battle, an unexpected hip replacement, and a decade in couples' counseling, she has a reframe for every couple who says they can't communicate: it's not a communication problem. It's an intimacy problem. In this conversation, Genee and Aaron talk through the prayer rhythm that gave her a window into her husband's grief when words failed him, why so many couples feel alone even inside a church, and what it actually takes to build the kind of community that sustains a marriage through hard seasons. If you've ever felt disconnected and didn't know what to call it — this one is for you.