Sometime in 1980, I started listening to Focus on the Family. I still enjoy listening to increase my understanding of life and people from a biblical worldview. As a teacher, family member, and auntie, I found the programs helpful. I am thankful that Focus on the Family and Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk continue their ministries! They are two of my “radio friends.” 😀 I pray that Mrs. Dobson, Danae, Ryan, Laura, Lincoln, and Lucy will adjust well in the near future to Dr. Dobson’s move to our eternal home, where they will be reunited with him again, and I may meet him for the first time! Thank you for sharing Dr. Dobson with all the rest of us.

Cathy

Focus on the Family was a major part of growing me up in my late 20s and on. I would wake early in the morning before I went to work, put the cassette in my radio, and tape the program. I still have probably over 100 programs on cassettes, and they were so meaningful to me. They radically changed the way I thought and healed my life in so many ways as a believer. It moved me on to learn about the dynamics of marriage, family, children, and relationships. Focus on the Family was a “parent” that taught me healthy content. I have so many books that I just cherish, and I’ll never let go of them. They’re timeless.

Yvonne

~A penny for your thoughts~♥️ Dr. James Dobson has been like a dear friend to me for over 40 years. Here are my thoughts: Dr. James Dobson has been one of my top 10 heroes for over 40 years. When I started listening to Focus on the Family, raising my children as a new Christian single mom, it felt like I was in the middle of an ocean, treading water, trying to keep my three children from drowning in a sea of despair, poverty, and brokenness. However, Dr. Dobson has been for me a mentor, teacher, role model, and inspiration to be the best mother I could possibly be. Dr. Dobson taught me to stand up for righteousness and to be an advocate for biblically based mental health. Through his work and legacy, Dr. Dobson has been a true fighter for faith, family, and freedom. His bright light will continue to shine as he passes the torch on to those who are willing to continue the fight for absolute truth. I am forever grateful to the Lord for Dr. James C. Dobson, who is like a Paul Revere, sounding the alarm to WAKE UP, AMERICA, AND STAND FOR TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS, FAITH, FAMILY, AND FREEDOM, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE! ♥️🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸♥️ ~a penny for your thoughts~

Penny

No one influenced my parenting more than Dr James Dobson. He spoke of the beauty of parenting so highly that we believed it truly was our highest calling. The joy in raising my three beautiful daughters to know and love the Lord was a heartfelt result of all the time Dr. Dobson poured into us sometimes-tired moms through his wonderful books and radio shows when we had little ones. He always reminded us that the years fly by and to enjoy the childhood years. He helped me realize I had the rest of my life to work outside the home, but my children only had one childhood, and I could not get the years back. I left my job in corporate America, working in management for a high tech company, and I never looked back. Every sacrifice we made God more than made up for over the years. Today, my daughters love the Lord, and they are not afraid to stand for God’s priceless truth in this darkened world. Praise be to God for men like Dr. James Dobson! I prayed for his safety and the safety of his family over the years as he was willing to stand for truth no matter the personal cost. He was an enormous hero of the faith, a man I have greatly admired, and who is already missed more than words can say. But because of his commitment to writing down what God led him to, future generations will be able to benefit, as my family did. I am praying for you, Shirley, and your entire family as you mourn so great a loss. You are a beautiful and loved family!

Carrie

I felt like I had lost a dear friend when I heard of Dr. Dobson‘s passing! I made that comment to my daughter-in-law, and she said she felt the same way. I first found Christian radio when the empty nest happened. I leaned on it to keep my mind on God and his truth! Dr. Dobson‘s Focus on the Family was one of the programs that I especially liked. I always felt he had solid, biblical advice about life and relationships, and his advice was worth taking to heart! Thank you, Dr. Dobson, for being such a help to me through some very difficult times.

Phyllis

I started listening to some of the Focus on the Family broadcasts when I was in high school, and Dr. Dobson was advocating homeschooling and a book by Raymond and Dorothy Moore called Better Late Than Early. It made an impression on me. As a result of this, my children were homeschooled and did very well academically, thanks to that influence. I met Dr. Dobson when I was 27 years old and had challenged him to a basketball game. When I arrived, I was the only African-American there. He sought me out to come down to his court and play the next game. (I remember thinking that I don’t think I would have had the character to interrupt my game to reach out to someone else who had walked into my church gymnasium and was a stranger.) He didn’t know that I was the physician who had challenged him. It told me that he was not prejudiced. Later, he invited me to interview/participate in his Physician’s Advisory Council. We shared stories about personal heart attacks. When he called me after his heart attack, somehow he found me even though I was working in the ICU, at the naval hospital in Guam. Some years later, when I had a heart attack, I had a chance to speak to him, even though he was on a writing trip and didn’t normally take phone calls during that time. I shared with him a book called Reversing Your Heart Disease by Dr. Dean Ornish. I think it may have been a factor in the fact that he became vegetarian. I believe that it extended his life. Long before some people had accused him of only being concerned about unborn babies, and not children who were already here, Jim and Shirley demonstrated love and caring by adopting Ryan. And this was also before starting a program that recommended that churches should adopt kids out of the foster care system. Once when I was meeting with him in his office about a serious personal issue, he received a phone call from Ryan and told his secretary that, unless it was an emergency, he would have to call him back. That he would give me the priority of the moment, despite a phone call from his son, told me a lot about his character. When we had a physician’s conference, and a group that I sang with gave a concert of hymns and African-American spirituals, he asked us privately to sing one of the songs again, and he sang with us. We shared these and other memories. May God bless Shirley, Ryan, and Danae as they deal with this tremendous loss. We can all thank God that we can look forward to heaven where we will not suffer these losses.

Doug