Wally Goddard is a retired professor of Family Life having served in Arkansas and Alabama. He developed programs on personal well-being, marriage, and parenting. He is well known for his many creative family programs, including The Marriage Garden, The Parenting Journey, and Blueprint for Happiness. Wally has authored or co-authored several books including Between Parent and Child, The Soft-Spoken Parent, and Drawing Heaven into Your Marriage. He has been recognized by his colleagues with several awards including the Outstanding Family Life Educator Award. Wally and his wife, Nancy, have three adult children, fourteen grandchildren, and have cared for many foster children over the years. Wally describes Nancy as the finest human being he has ever known. For more about the books Wally has written, go to his Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/H-Wallace-Goddard/e/B001H6ND5A?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1566156161&sr=1-2
Sometimes we define ourselves by our successes or failures. When…
Apparently, most of us aren’t prepared for the growth and…
Several years ago, I knew a man who said that…
We parents decide daily whether we will enter our child’s…
There is one reason above all others that the Book…
To understand the solution to our annoying differences, we must…
Painfully often, I have seismic reactions to trivial annoyances. Forgotten…
If we study God’s purposes for marriage, we might better…
At times, we all suffer from spiritual discouragement. We get…
As my beloved sister said recently, “Our nothingness is great…
“When we habitually understate the meaning of the Atonement, we…
A recent chance encounter with a widowed Syrian refugee and…
As humans, we think first and foremost of ourselves. We…
The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and Nephi makes…
Meridian Magazine has been a valued publication of articles exploring…
Flesh. Iniquities. Temptations. Sins. Those are not the words we…
We often spend a lot of time on the Nephi’s…
In the early days of our marriage, an unexpected encounter…
If, as a teacher, I acted like my students had…
Consider the power of a story. Rather than focusing on…
When we suffer distress in relationships—especially marriage—we instinctively search for…
God and His messengers call us by name. They grasp…
When we look up in the night sky, we may…
Would you like to feel the love and wisdom of…
Immersed in our self-confidence culture, we assume that God took…
I’m afraid that we often don’t understand God and His…
Jesus never commands us to love ourselves. Quite the contrary.…
The war in heaven was fought over agency—the ability and…
We imagine that we are far more compassionate than the…
Today’s world is filled with violence. Fighting, shooting, blaming, and…
Time and again, the discoveries of research in the area…
Recently, a friend asked me to share my list of…
Our relationship practices should be built on solid, enduring family…
In his stirring message, The False Gods We Worship, President…
There are reliable scriptural patterns that can teach us the…
King Benjamin said things that made you wonder if he…
It is the time of year when our accumulated failures…
What does radical faith look like today? Maybe someone else…
If religion is defined as “a personal set or institutionalized…
It is hard to imagine Jesus scolding the apostles: “You…
We may not have had the chance to share certain…
What are the most important ideas for greater happiness, better…
Can I qualify for the Celestial Kingdom? Will I try…
Carl Jacobs wrote the following story of Bill, who rescued…
A central message of the Restoration is that heavenly beings…
Why do we know the fullness of the gospel of…
In trying to make our way to heaven, we may…
What happened to quiet, steady goodness? How did we lose…
As strangers in the strange land of mortality, we all…
We talk about testimony as if it were the ultimate…
Because my family growing up was so serious about the…
The world’s best expert on families and relationships is God.…
In the church it seems that we have formulized repentance.…
Satan loves to attack and undermine the principles with the…
Our ideas of what God is like are influenced by…
We naturally want to fix people who are not doing…
The American dogma that we cannot love anyone until we…
Where do we Latter-day Saints get most of our counsel…
If I asked you what blessings God gave you last…
People should be able to tell what matters to you…
Most people don’t grow up just around the corner from…
Along the way in marriage, we may wonder if we…
I’m afraid that we are so aware of the dramatic…
Satan loves lies. And maybe his favorite lie is that…
How often should we be having distinct experiences with the…
The Book of Mormon reminds me of our challenges in…
If we are only looking for big revelations, we will…
Since we believe that the members of the godhead are…
How can we know what is true? That is one…
Centuries ago, Christian theologians wrestled with many doctrinal issues. One…
One of the greatest burdens on the souls of many…
We have all experienced it. Senseless tragedy. Incurable illness. Painful…
The latter-day dispensation was launched with a visitation by the…
God’s participation in our lives will be different from His…
The Latter-day Saint view is that the Bible is a…
Along with our inventories of heavenly insights, we also occasionally…
When we merely trade barbs, then we give Satan charge…
We who are in covenant with Jesus should take sacred…
It is the time of year when our accumulated failures…
What does Heavenly Father require of me to sustain a…
God wants us to learn from the messy processes of…
The modern way to improve ourselves is to set goals…
It is hard to look forward to judgment day. Especially…
In ancient times God required various sacrifices of His people.…
As I sorted through my mother's garage, I pulled out…
God knows what He is doing. He provides each of…
In recent years popular culture has declared self-esteem to be…
Sincere mortals have one central challenge in mortality: figuring out…
Doctrine and Covenants 46 provides a unique roadmap for personal…
Do you ever make perfectly clear and sensible statements that…
We all know the doctrines that are essential to successful…
It’s not about fixing ourselves, but being renewed by Him.
There is a terrible tension between our desire for holiness…
Over the last few years I have been reading my…
In my view, there are three religious questions that matter…
One popular method for directing children’s behavior is the use…
The default setting for human minds is evaluation. We are…
In movies, there is periodically a discordance in the soundtrack…
Often, we think we are acting nobly when we are…
Sometimes the harder we try to solve a problem with…
Babies learn to coordinate the views coming from both their…
Quarreling and bickering among siblings are painfully common in family…
I grew up trying to overcome my strengths. I didn’t…
Teaching our children to trust God will change their lives,…
Two amazing people were struggling in their marriage. In desperation,…
When we moved to Little Rock, Nancy launched her traditional…
The very best parenting shows profound compassion and love for…
Dave Barry ironically observed that “Americans who travel abroad for…
Do you have faults that discourage you? Do you ever…
What should a parent do when their child violates a…
A successful companionship requires not only patience, hard work, commitment,…
Imagine that you find a policeman at your door one…
I have heard the saying “children don’t come with instruction…
Many of us know someone whose hearing has declined and…
Some of us are surprised to discover that even though…
Picture this: A four-year-old is playing with her 6-year-old sister…
When two people come together from two very different backgrounds,…
Differences can irritate and grow. They can become defining issues.…
Some children are just easy to love. But what about…
When in a gracious mood, many of us gladly make…
Over time, the things that attracted us to each other…
Mom offered her little boy green beans. He threw them…
We all have our reasons for seeing things the way…
We often treat lightly the abundant and sacred gifts that…
Irritation is a universal problem. You do it. I do…
A family adopted a little girl internationally when she was…
Imagine that you just met someone intriguing. You want to…
How can we love someone who is unavailable or unkind?…
We all get irritated and impatient with family members (and…
We have richer, fuller, more pleasant lives than kings and…
For many years, some believed the primary purpose of parenting…
“In 25 years of marriage, my wife and I have…
The teacher asked the high priests, “What advice do you…
There is an interesting assumption behind most discipline: Making children…
People are making bids for connection all the time. They…
There must be a quirk in human wiring that we…
Discoveries: Essential Truths for Relationships: Are we making judgments when…
As I have thought about our marriages, I have estimated…
Parenting is tough. We are forced to make a stream…
The world’s best expert on families and relationships is God.…
Unlike the characters of ancient scripture, we moderns tend to…
If you could go back and give counsel to your…
Fairly often someone calls me at home or at work…
I regularly thank Heavenly Father for blessing me with a…
Instead of inconveniences and irritations, some people see goodness and…
Do you ever feel spiritually inadequate? Do you suppose that…
Charity may be one of the rarest of gems in…
Every one of us mortals has developmental challenges of several…
The law of consecration is foreign to the natural man.…
When we think of a Christ-centered home, we have a…
One of the great examples of moral excellence was Joseph…
Sometimes sacred practices do not have the desired power because…
When I follow the natural man’s method for marital change,…
Sometimes when someone is struggling spiritually we reduce our recommendations…
Elder Hafen has described three kinds of wolves that test…
President Ezra Taft Benson expressed a powerful idea: "When we…
Some of our spouses’ personal characteristics that we enjoy in…
Heaven draws us toward godliness. Our sacrifices are the paltry…
Afflictions are the process by which God cultivates growth. Rather…
There is no ladder we can climb from terrestrial thinking…
What is God’s purpose for marriage? Did God design marriage…
Constantly evaluating ourselves against impossible standards is a guaranteed way…
We all feel frustrated and torn by specific parenting dilemmas…
There is a direct proportion between nearness to God and…
Think of a recent disciplinary encounter with a child that…
On May 5, 2015, Kim Kardashian West will publish worldwide…
There is nothing quite so helpful for humans as total…
The Bible gives us only fragments of lives. Characters drop…
We all aspire to give and receive love. The modern…
There are many processes that need to work well for…
When we think children’s behavior is crazy or irrational, we…
When we think children’s behavior is crazy or irrational, we…
Compassion is vital. Yet it is also completely unnatural for…
While it is fitting to want to be better, healthier,…
We often think we understand the idea of compassion and…
Every parent is failing in some important way. That is…
It’s easy to be irritated when our hearts are darkened.…
We have mental pictures of loving, peaceful, happy families extending…
It is inevitable in family life that our pet peeves…
I believe that we each had an interview with Father…
In our search to sustain a vibrant faith in God,…
"How can I get my child to do what I…
In terms of modern miracles, we LDS are perched precariously…
Jesus regularly offended the institutional leaders of His time. He…
Lessons learned after the dreaded cancer diagnosis came into our…
Why would a perfectly wise, powerful, and loving God devise…
How can we know truth? One of the puzzling questions…
Does God have feelings the way we do? We sorrow…
If we posed the question, "Does faith in the Lord…
If there is any group that honors the process that…
What is clear in mainline Christianity is that there is…
Who Gets Burned? The Latter-day Wideness of God's Mercy
One of the greatest burdens on the souls of many…
It is not surprising that Christians hold the Bible in…
The Restoration view of the Godhead is truer to the…
When I was a teen I witnessed the up-and-down course…
What is the unique role of the Book of Mormon…
Nature has so conspired that the people who have young…
If your child is ready for a chapter book, you…
This clever book will delight children with its endearing illustrations.…
Susannah DeClare was the tallest plainswoman traveling the OhioValley. "To…
When I first bought The Wheels on the Bus (1990)…
Conversing with children is a unique art with rules and…
Praise, like penicillin, must not be administered haphazardly. There are…
Trying to correct children can often lead to behaviors that…
If you are a person who is interested in strengthening…
Parenting books are like prescription medications: They must fit the…
What would happen if we tried to solve family problems…
An important contribution to the LDS effort to connect gospel…
Some LDS talks have left an indelible impression on our…
This book should be especially useful for young people and…
Society's changing view of marriage has radically weakened it.
Sometimes anger is nothing more than simmering irritation. Other times…
If all of us were filled with the pure love…
Very often we want to help our children act better,…
Children's motives are much like ours - only probably a…
Far more often than we realize, our children are injured…
God knows everything and loves perfectly. We do not. So…
It was a small dent. But for several months it…
Do you remember feeling painfully self-conscious as a child? Do…
It may be that the children who have drawn our…
Children only learn the meaning of our words by connecting…
Rather than accuse, confront, and threaten, parents might respond to…
Mom started in me a process of celebrating God's many…
More efforts are being made to strengthen marriages than most…
My reading of scripture and my experience in life converge…
For some people, trusting God is as natural as eating.…
The fact that liars, sorcerers, adulterers, and whoremongers will be…
The days when you go to bed feeling peaceful are…
The reigning paradigm about how to have a good marriage…
What exactly did he mean when Heber C. Kimball made…
Humans do a poor job of making sense of things.…
Fixing people is really God's prerogative. Our job is to…
Might we consider a backstory that might help us understand…
Powerful romantic attractions are intended to get us together. But…
If Satan can take God away from us, he has…
Nephi poignantly poses the questions that burden earnest seekers of…
Since marriage is God's finishing school, we should expect more…
If we truly believe in Christ and apply his principles…
If the wolves that threaten marriage are crowding at your…
Every serious relationship will get to the point of desperation.…
If you find yourself enjoying a friendship with someone of…
We need more than a set of skills for expressing…
It's amazing what awful things we can learn in the…
Opportunities for strengthening marriage through education are available in central…
I think that God intends that we choose goodness and…
Repentance is often portrayed as morose business. It is to…
Having been taught from the beginning that we must love…
Do we work hard, suffer terribly, and, in the end,…
The best way to deal with Satan is to be…
Teaching hatred has always been the work of the wicked.…
The Book of Mormon seems to send a clear message:…
My reading of scripture and my experience in life converge…
For some people, trusting God is as natural as eating.…
The fact that liars, sorcerers, adulterers, and whoremongers will be…
The days when you go to bed feeling peaceful are…
The reigning paradigm about how to have a good marriage…
What exactly did he mean when Heber C. Kimball made…
Might we consider a backstory that might help us understand…
Powerful romantic attractions are intended to get us together. But…
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them…
A recently released Relief Society president reflected: "I knew I…
If Satan can take God away from us, he has…
It's tempting to believe that God's unconditional love for us…
Nephi poignantly poses the questions that burden earnest seekers of…
It isn't our circumstances that determine the story we tell…
Many of the traditional resolutions we make are mere gruel…
There are Godly ways to deal with the knotty parenting…
Your home sends a message about what you believe. Here…
Years ago God taught me that I only have the…
It is in the depths of affliction that we learn…
How often are we our own worst enemies?
Given enough time together, the day may come when the…
How would it impact our homes and families if we…
When we find the Pharisee within us chafing at others,…
Parents attempts to control their children fall into three methods--and…
How do we set reasonable limits while, at the same…
Several years ago I knew a man who said that…
Heavenly Father gives us families where we are challenged to…
Some of the college entrance exams we took when we…
The foundation of the parenting structure is our compassion for…
In parenting our children, we should have compassion for their…
Sometimes our faith is weak. We often feel worried, tired,…
Compassion requires us to stretch beyond our self-focused thoughts and…
Compassion is not your run-of-the-mill pity. It is not even…
King Benjamin may be the prophet who has most clearly…
We regularly try to turn parenting into a test of…
We rarely recognize the importance of parenting in God's plan.…
Why do we misunderstand each other and why are some…
When someone has treated us insensitively, maybe we can open…
Teaching hatred has always been the work of the wicked.…
The Book of Mormon seems to send a clear message:…
Conversion might look quite different from the outside from what…
The Book of Mormon contains some of the greatest insights…
The true test of discipleship is not that we help…
How often do we go to the Book of Mormon…
Philip Jenkins, the renowned historian, has observed that Christian orthodoxy…
When we empty ourselves of ourselves-our agendas, preferences, peeves, demands,…
We are lastingly trapped in our narrow ways of thinking-unless…
Some portray God as austere, distant, and harsh, a picture…
Two of the most popular methods that parents use to…
Quarreling and bickering among siblings are painfully common in family…
The Lord is always turning toward us whether we turn…
The Lord is always turning toward us whether we turn…
An inspired priesthood leader will seek to discern and verify…
I believe that we each had an interview with Father…
Nephi poignantly poses the questions that burden earnest seekers of…
The Good News is that He who commands us to…
Modern Christian descriptions of God and the trinity owe more…
How can we tell if we're making some progress in…
If Satan can take God away from us, he has…
God seems to ask: "Would you feel richer if others…
Powerful romantic attractions are intended to get us together. But…
Might we consider a backstory that might help us understand…
Fixing people is really God's prerogative. Our job is to…
Humans do a poor job of making sense of things.…
Meridian Classic: Perhaps the most pernicious sins are those that…
What exactly did he mean when Heber C. Kimball made…
Even career sinners-liars, sorcerers, adulterers, and whoremongers-will ultimately be placed…
What kind of craftsman is God? Does He patch together…
The very concept of loving our enemies is so unreasonable…
The reigning paradigm about how to have a good marriage…
It is human nature to look for the Magic Formula.…
Driving is a magnificent test of our Christian character. We…
Inadvertently, the young bishop closed off the channels of communication.…
We all have different personalities. Each personality type has its…
As a society, we celebrate competence. We give awards for…
For those who aspire to change themselves, there is a…
The days when you go to bed feeling peaceful are…
Doing good does not guarantee a life of contentment and…
Rather than accuse, confront, and threaten, parents might respond to…
Children only learn the meaning of our words by connecting…
It may be that the children who have drawn our…
Do you remember feeling painfully self-conscious as a child? Do…
It was a small dent. But for several months it…
God knows everything and loves perfectly. We do not. So…
Far more often than we realize, our children are injured…
Children's motives are much like ours - only probably a…
Very often we want to help our children act better,…
If all of us were filled with the pure love…
Sometimes anger is nothing more than simmering irritation. Other times…
"A jovial, lively person, and a beautiful man." I like…
The fact that liars, sorcerers, adulterers, and whoremongers will be…
The Good Samaritan story about the man who fell among…
For some people, trusting God is as natural as eating.…
How often do we go to the Book of Mormon…
The true test of discipleship is not that we help…
The Book of Mormon contains some of the greatest insights…
Conversion might look quite different from the outside from what…
The Book of Mormon seems to send a clear message:…
Teaching hatred has always been the work of the wicked.…
The best way to deal with Satan is to be…
Do we work hard, suffer terribly, and, in the end,…
Having been taught from the beginning that we must love…
King Benjamin may be the prophet who has most clearly…
Repentance is often portrayed as morose business. It is to…
I think that God intends that we choose goodness and…
Society's changing view of marriage has radically weakened it.
This book should be especially useful for young people and…
We all eat stew from life's general pot. Yet some…
Some LDS talks have left an indelible impression on our…
How can we prepare for, value, and memorialize His messages?…
The language of sweetness in the movie has left a…
Big houses don't seem so important when we cherish the…
No matter what kind of parent you are, you can…
Children learn just what combination of whining and demanding will…
Many parents appreciate the no-nonsense approach to managing children given…
My reading of scripture and my experience in life converge…
The instinctive response to assaults on the self-esteem movement is…
When King Benjamin said "If ye should serve him with…
Sometimes we accept the cultural myths without examining them. Sometimes…
There is one way we can get a true measure…
An important contribution to the LDS effort to connect gospel…
Is it possible that the final test for entrance into…
What would happen if we tried to solve family problems…
When God sends opportunity to us, what is our attitude?…
Cultivating spiritual sensitivity is a life-long process. How do we…
Heavenly beings, eternal truths, and scenes from the history of…
Is nature set up to conspire against us? Or is…
Parenting books are like prescription medications: They must fit the…
God designed marriage to help us grow spiritually. Too often…
Sincere mortals have one central challenge in mortality, figuring out…
There is nothing quite so helpful for mortals as total…
If obedience and consecration are turning our wills and lives…
As emotional intelligence became a national craze, authors rose to…
We need to set aside our unbalanced human perceptions and…
Humans have a tendency to categorize. We all sort people…
All ideas on parenting are not created equal, and some…
Many decisions are difficult because we are trying to justify…
There is some question whether a person can really experience…
To make better family life, we should fill ourselves with…
The people in our congregations with the biggest challenges may…
It is hard to imagine Jesus nagging the apostles: "You…
Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass…
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world…
Most of the questions I get from parents have the…
How do we keep our strengths from becoming a stumblingblock?
Surprisingly, research has demonstrated that the most realistic people are…
It's not about fixing ourselves, but being renewed by Him.
The Balm of Gilead is closer than you might think.
Perhaps the most pernicious sins are those that make us…