Author: H. Wallace Goddard

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.

Marriage and the Parting of the Red Sea

There is nothing quite so helpful for mortals as total desperation. As long as there is even a sliver of hope that our efforts might remove us from our dilemmas, we are likely to keep floundering along. But when we …

Conflict Resolution and the Creation of Peace

Nancy and I have some friends who have been married for a few years longer than we have been. They are earnest, good people. But they are human. A few years ago the husband was dragging home from work every …

The One Source for Happiness

It was always nice to sit with my Dad and talk of the gospel, his favorite topic. From time to time his words come back to me. “Many decisions are difficult because we have not made up our minds to …

“I Could Not Believe it Myself”

You don’t know me—you never will.
I don’t blame you for not believing my history;
had I not experienced it
[I] could not believe it myself.
(Words of Joseph Smith, p. 343)

Nancy and I recently saw the movie Joseph …

The Mystery of Jesus

Jesus is and was a mystery. He just kept doing things that people didn’t expect and couldn’t deserve. He treated the adulterous woman at the well as if she were royalty. He frankly forgave the woman in the house of …

The Lesson of the Washing Machine Hose

Okay. So the plumber inspected the house we had just bought. Among other things he told Nancy that it would be a good idea to replace the hoses on our washing machine. They could burst and flood the house. (It …

Toddling toward Godliness

When God gives us a potted miniature rose in full bloom, many of us feel both blessed and cursed. Where can I put it? How long will it stay in bloom? Do I know how to care for it? What …

New Year Resolutions

The new year invites us to make resolutions. But too often resolutions merely accentuate our failings. Are we ever enlarged by our aspirations—or only reminded of our chronic failings?

For years my solution has been to avoid the whole mess. …