Relationships

Torn between two worlds? It is possible to follow God’s call and still invest in your family. Discover the extraordinary joy of actively and intentionally pursuing your wife and children. You will be reminded that it’s messy, it’s difficult, and it’s the most rewarding thing you can do, beyond following Christ.

Lead Me

Distance can make the heart grow fonder, but it can also challenge a marriage. Every marriage needs commitment and devotion to grow strong. But strengthening your relationship with a spouse whose job demands extended absences requires creativity to relate to each other during those times. In this plan, learn how six women in the Bible overcame life’s greatest relational challenges through faith, love, and devotion.

Devoted to Your Husband

Part of keeping your marriage strong is taking steps to protect it from attacks. Learn how to maintain boundaries to avoid infidelity and other temptations with this 11-day reading plan. You’ll get guidance on specific issues you might face, and learn how to take proactive steps against them.

Get resources on marriage, parenting, faith, and more at FocusOnTheFamilny.com.

Building Boundaries to Protect Your Marriage 

Blending a Family 40-day Devotional written by Moe and Paige Becnel at Blending a Family Ministry is a resource for remarried families. The Becnel’s married in 1989 with 5 children, and were quickly overwhelmed with many issues exclusive to blended families. The plan discusses the cause of the issues many families face, and provides solutions found in God’s Word that fuel family growth. God is for you!

Blending a Family 40 Day Devotional

How does riding a tandem bicycling mirror marriage? That may seem like a strange concept, but having an enjoyable ride on a bicycle built for two can show you a lot about how to live a tandem life as a married couple. Come along for the ride!

Marriage is Tandem Living

As we look at the life of David this week, we see the power of sin and temptation and how one night of pleasure can lead to a lifetime of pain. We all have clay feet. Therefore, let us confess our sin before the Lord, give it to Him, and ask Him to protect us and fill us so that we can flee temptation.

[Life Of David] A Night Of Passion Becomes A Life Of Pain 

The Bible gives us a great script for happily ever after and a realistic view of finding true love, lasting happiness, and a deep contentment whatever your relationship status.

Living Happily Ever After: Devotions From Time Of Grace

In a world that doesn’t even see pornography as a problem, trying to stand firm against porn in your marriage can be a confusing, challenging and lonely experience. Here are seven messages of hope to comfort you, encourage you, and embolden you to fight on.

Fighting for Love in a Porn Affected Marriage

We must prioritize our marriage if we plan to make it “until death do us part!” After 34 years of marriage, having 4 kids in 5 years, and enduring hardships and teenage rebellion, Roxanne shares her top marriage nuggets to help you establish the priority of a lifelong love.

Marriage Matters

This plan begins with a desperate prayer: "How do we get to you, God? How do we stand and believe light can shine here, right here?" Through 5 days of journaled conversations between a tender heart and a Good Father, read along and ask Holy Spirit to speak to you in a fresh, powerful way in the week ahead.

Breathing Eden: Conversations With God

Being a father who prays isn’t the same thing as being a praying father. A father who prays takes actions. A praying father builds godly character. He’s in a constant and authentic exchange with a real and present God. This can be more easily said than done, but do it we must. Join us on a fatherhood journey as we learn how to be praying fathers who impact future generations.

Becoming a Praying Father

God graciously gives us red flags in life. He is faithful to give us warnings regarding our relationships, our decisions, and ourselves.

This devotional will focus on the red flags in relationships, the red flags in marriages, and the red flags in ourselves.  He intends to use the red flags in our life to warn us, mold us, and make us more like Jesus.


Red Flags: A 10 Day Devotional On Relationships

This 40-day reading plan is designed to help those in a relationship, those planning to get married, or those already married to get into the Word and understand the Biblical foundations of marriage. 

"Sexodus" Relationships Devotional

Learn how to love like you’ve been loved. This plan, with content from Called 2 Love: A 40-day Journey into Marriage Intimacy by Dr. David and Teresa Ferguson and Steve and Barbara Uhlmann, will help you begin to experience deepened closeness with your spouse and learn how to write your own marriage story. Experience God’s love for you and live out that love with your spouse.

Called 2 Love: A Journey Into Marriage Intimacy 

Marriage is designed to be the closest possible relationship of increasing intimacy and growing interdependence. But this is not automatic; we have to keep working at our marriage to stay connected. Adapted from The Marriage Course by Nicky and Sila Lee, this 7-day plan aims to introduce you to tools to build a healthy marriage and strengthen your connection—or to restore your connection if you feel you’ve lost it.

The Marriage Course

The Bible presents marriage as a sacred covenant. But what does that mean, and how do we live it out in the everyday challenges of marriage? Listen together as Kris Langham opens the Word to provide clear explanation and insightful application on key issues like commitment, connection, holiness, and sex. With engaging audio and practical discussion questions, The Marriage Talks is perfect for marital or premarital couples and small groups.

The Marriage Talks Part 3 | Covenant

Don’t let disconnection steal the affection from your marriage. God wants you to live a connected, healthy life together. Take this 7-Day Married Couple’s Connection Challenge and see how the Bible points us to connect with each other. This 7-day plan by Christina Dodson will help you talk more, prioritize each other, have fun again, and learn new things about each other.

7-Day Married Couple’s Connection Challenge

They key to a home filled with laughter and joy starts with a marriage that reflects the love of Christ. Yet, when you’re more concerned with maintaining your home, maintaining a healthy relationship isn’t always easy. That’s why Dr. Ed Young wrote a series of ten daily devotionals to help you and your spouse strengthen your marriage by demonstrating love on a daily basis.

Happy Marriage, Happy Home

Being married can be a struggle. When children are added into the mix, it can be a bumpy ride. Fortunately, God gave us the right tools to smooth out the bumps and help us get control of the situation. With this reading plan, we are going to look at four tools we can use every day to have a healthy and thriving marriage while raising children.

The Marriage Toolkit - Parent Edition

Sometimes in a marriage, one thing can change everything. To find out what those things are, Married People founder, Ted Lowe, interviewed marriage experts and asked them for the one thing they would tell any couple.

One Things

The book of Ruth is famous for the most captivating redemption story. In this devotion we will be looking at how to navigate around different relationships, dealing with loss, healing, making decisions, and trusting God’s process and plan in the midst of changing times and seasons.  



Relationships According to the Book of Ruth 

How do I live with a spouse who does not believe in God? That question is not unusual in our world today, and couples who face this situation encounter many problems. Without the common foundation of faith in Christ, marriage is unbalanced. In this plan, Dr. Kim Kimberling helps you know what to do when your marriage is unequally yoked. 


Unequally Yoked

This video plan is especially about the relationships we have within marriage and God's encouragement for you!

Marriage That Lasts

Jesus set the example for how to forgive. Now he calls us to the difficult task of forgiving those who have hurt us. The good news is, he gives us the power to forgive and let it go. In this reading plan, Joël Malm talks about some of the myths of forgiveness and how to walk in the power that God offers to forgive ourselves and others. 

The Power to Forgive

Marriage is hard. Sometimes it feels like the best way is out, and we feel the relationship cannot survive another day. But the truth is, there is a better, more excellent way. In this 5-day plan, Pete examines the challenges all married couples face and shares how Jesus wants to breathe life and love into your marriage—even when it seems broken beyond repair.

Don't Walk Away From Your Marriage By Pete Briscoe

Marriage

Are you missing out by doing things God’s way?
This 3-day study through Proverbs 5 reveals God’s warning about sexual sin, His design for intimacy, and how your choices shape your future. Discover how God’s plan leads to security, fulfillment, and lasting love—not regret. Whether you’re single or dating, this devotional will help you pursue purity and relationships with clarity and confidence.


You’re Not Missing Out: God’s Plan for Sex & Intimacy

Relationships can be amazing, but they can also be messy. Whether you’re single, dating, engaged, or married, loving others well takes wisdom, patience, and a whole lot of grace. In this three-day Bible Plan, you’ll learn how to let go of what you can’t control, communicate with clarity instead of criticism, and set boundaries that actually make your relationships stronger. Ready to build healthy relationships?



3 Tips for Better Relationships

No sooner have the Christmas carols faded and the New Year celebrations settled than our surroundings begin to turn red, drawing our attention toward Valentine’s Day. For those who are single, this season can quietly stir questions of longing, worth, or waiting. This 7-day devotional is an invitation to pause and be reminded of God’s faithful love. Together, we will ground our identity in Christ, reframe singleness as a meaningful season, and celebrate a fuller understanding of love rooted in God’s presence extending far beyond romance.

7 Day Valentines Devotional

Jesus calls us to shine His light and influence others for His Kingdom. Some friends draw you closer to your purpose; others slowly lead you off course. The people you walk with shape your faith. Are your friendships helping you grow—or pulling you back? 

In this 7-day plan, discover how to reflect Christ, resist compromise, and be a light that leads others closer to Him.



Are Your Friendships Fueling Your Faith?

Valentine’s Day often highlights emotional love, but the Bible reveals a deeper, stable, and transforming love. This 5-day reading plan invites you to discover love according to God’s heart—a love that is chosen, built, and rooted in truth. Open to everyone, regardless of relationship status, it explores the love that comes from God, heals, forgives, and reflects Christ. Through Scripture, practical reflections, and prayer, this plan helps align your heart with the very source of love and live out healthy, lasting relationships.

Valentine's Day: Loving as God Loves - Jean-Luc Trachsel

Every human being is born into a world filled with voices - some nurturing, some deceptive, and others downright destructive. From the moment we open our eyes, the world begins to tell us who we are & who we are not. 

It names us before we can name ourselves. “You’re not enough.” “You’re too broken.” “You’ll never be like them.”

These whispers- subtle, persistent, and often inherited - shape our sense of self long before we encounter the truth of who God says we are.

Who Told You?

Before you can build a healthy relationship with someone else, you first have to understand who you are. But between society’s expectations, past heartbreaks, and our own insecurities, identity can get lost in the shuffle. Knowing yourself isn’t just self-help jargon—it’s the foundation for everything else. Let’s explore the five W questions: Who am I? What am I? Where am I? When am I? Why am I even here?

Student of Love: Your Guide to Discover, Uncover, and Recover Healthy Relationships

God desires us to live in sexual consecration. Our destinies are inextricably tied to this.

Sexual Purity and Destiny

Everything God created was good, including marriage. Why then do we witness so much pain and dysfunction in present-day marriages? How did the author of this esteemed institution intend for couples to conduct themselves? This 10-day devotional reveals fundamental principles that will help steady and grow your marriage.

You will be stirred to love in action, protect, communicate effectively, choose faithfulness, serve with joy, forgive deeply, sprinkle some romance, pray together, and grow purposefully. 

Each day offers relevant scriptures, a simple step, and a short prayer to strengthen your connection with your spouse. 


Ten Commandments of Marriage: A 10-Day Devotional

Have you ever felt like your heart has quietly closed off after disappointment, rejection, or emotional pain?
This 7-day devotional helps you recognize the subtle ways your heart may have become guarded and invites you into God’s process of restoration. Through Scripture and reflection, you will learn that you are not broken, you are wounded, and God is able to heal.
If you’ve struggled with trust, emotional numbness, or fear of love, this plan will guide you back to openness, wholeness, and truth.

Is My Heart Still Open?

This 7-day reading plan offers space to reflect on love as Scripture reveals it — gently, honestly, and without pressure. Through daily Bible passages and quiet reflection, you’re invited to slow down, notice where fear or striving may be present, and consider what it might look like to live loved. This plan is for anyone longing for rest, clarity, or a deeper sense of connection with God. 

What the Bible Says About Love

If you’re tired of carrying the weight of trying to change the man you love, this plan is for you. Over the next five days, you’ll finally discover how to move from fix and control to surrender and prayer. Experience the peace that comes from learning how to trust God with your partner’s future.

Pray for Him - From Fixing to Praying

Why get married when you can cohabit? This plan shows how marriage is different from cohabitation by showing the theological roots of marriage. As we reflect on the biblical concept of covenant, we will see what is so valuable about marriage. Invest in your marriage and learn wisdom for relationships from the scriptures.

Why Marriage | Covenant: The Heart of Commitment

Marital anxiety is often the result of fear shaped by experiences, stories, observations, disappointments, and unanswered questions. Many singles desire marriage but are terrified of what it might cost or expose within them.
This 7-day devotional is designed to confront the fears surrounding marriage with God’s truth: the Scriptures. Each day addresses a specific fear that keeps many singles stuck in avoidance, helping you identify its root, dismantle its power, and replace it with trust in God.
This plan invites you to bring your fears and release them to God, in preparation for the “good land” He has promised.


Fear Not: Confronting the Real Fears About Marriage

'KEEPING GODLY RELATIONSHIPS' is a 4-day devotional reading plan designed to help you build and maintain relationships rooted in God’s Word. Through each day’s reflection, you’ll discover essential biblical values for nurturing love, trust, and understanding in all types of relationships—whether in marriage, friendship, or business. This plan will guide you toward practicing godly principles that strengthen your connections, foster harmony, and reflect Christ’s character in every interaction.

Keeping Godly Relationships

Lasting marriages are not sustained by feelings alone, but by intentional choices made over time. In this 7-Day devotional, Building a Love That Lasts, Barnie & Grace Achoki guide couples through practical habits that strengthen connection and deepen trust in everyday married life. Each day invites couples to read together, engage in honest conversations, pray intentionally, and take simple action steps that nurture unity. Designed for both growing and struggling marriages, this plan helps couples move from survival to purpose as they learn how to actively build a love that lasts.

Building a Love That Lasts: 7-Day Devotional in Marriage, Thistles & Flowers Series

Lust is more than temptation; it is a battle of the heart and mind. In a culture saturated with sexual imagery and instant gratification, many believers struggle silently with shame, desire, and confusion. This 7-day Bible plan offers hope, clarity, and practical steps toward freedom.

Through Scripture, reflection, and prayer, you’ll learn how to renew your mind, guard your heart, resist temptation, and cultivate Spirit-led self-control. Freedom is possible, not through willpower alone, but through transformation in Christ.

Overcoming Lust

Healing after a broken church courtship—finding clarity, dignity, and hope in God again.

Healing From Broken Courtship Relationship

This 5-day devotional equips you to overcome the battle of lust through the power of God’s Word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Each day offers Scriptures to meditate on, confessions to declare, teachings to strengthen your walk, and Spirit-led prayers to empower you for victory. Lust is not stronger than the Spirit of God within you. Through Christ, you are called to walk in freedom, discipline, and holiness. As you journey through these devotions, you will learn to flee temptation, embrace your identity as a new creation, and stand confident in God’s strength to overcome.

OVERCOME Lust WITH TRUST

Everyone dreams of a love that lasts but lasting relationships don’t just happen. They are built with the right foundation, effort, and grace. This 3-day plan will help you understand the biblical principles and personal growth needed to build strong, godly relationships that lead to lasting love and healthy marriages. You’ll discover how to invite God into your relationships, communicate effectively, and grow in love that mirrors Christ’s. Whether single, dating, or married, this plan will help you build not just a connection, but a covenant that stands the test of time.

Building Love That Lasts

Snare Marriage: Discerning Between God’s Covenant and the Enemy’s Trap by Patrick Omukhango is a 7-day devotional designed to help believers recognize the difference between God-ordained relationships and subtle relational snares. Through powerful biblical examples, this plan exposes how love, emotion, pressure, and compromise can quietly derail purpose. Whether single, dating, married, or recovering from relational pain, this devotional invites you into deeper discernment, healing, and alignment with God’s covenant design—so relationships become instruments of destiny, not traps that hinder obedience.

Snare Marriage: Discerning Between God's Covenant and the Enemy's Trap by Patrick Omukhango 

Virtues are about our character and our personality. When we walk into a room, what energy and culture come with us? How do we show up with others and for others? In this study, well explore the why, the what, and the how of the masculine virtues: humility, discipline, responsibility, and chivalry.

4 Virtues of Authentic Masculinity by Seth Troutt

Seasons of hiding can feel confusing, lonely, and discouraging, especially for Christian singles who desire clarity, movement, or partnership. Yet the Book of Esther reveals a powerful truth: obscurity can be God’s strategy, not His neglect. This 7-day devotional invites you to explore what it means to be hidden yet deeply known, unseen yet divinely remembered. Through Esther’s journey, you will discover how God uses quiet seasons to protect identity, refine character, and prepare you for future responsibility.

Hidden but Not Forgotten

These 30 days of devotions will encourage you to find your security in Christ as you let Him transform you and your relationships! This plan is written by Chelsea Neal, Director of Personal Client Advocacy at Avail-- a non-profit organization that exists to empower confident decisions and foster futures of hope for those facing unintended pregnancy, past and present.

Relationships That Flourish: A 30-Day Devotional on Finding Security in Christ and Growing Healthy Connections

Relationships shape our lives deeply, yet many people enter them guided by lies rather than truth. This plan exposes common relationship lies that damage hearts, marriages, and destinies, and replaces them with God’s wisdom. Are you single, dating, engaged, or married? These seven days will help you pause, discern wisely, walk in purity, and build relationships rooted in truth and honour. You will learn how to recognise red flags early, value commitment over emotion, and trust God’s design for love. Here is an invitation to choose truth, walk in wisdom, and experience love the way God intended.

Love, Lust, and Lies

Dating

This reading plan is based upon Cindy Beall's book, Healing Your Marriage When Trust Is Broken. Learn how to find hope and healing for your wounded marriage as you navigate the waters of betrayal. Cindy, and her husband, Chris, have walked out their healing by trusting in God's mighty power and encourage you to join them on this healing journey.

Healing Your Marriage When Trust Is Broken

During divorce and other extremely difficult times, there comes a moment when you will wonder if you will ever make it. Over the next 7 days, you will be able to connect with God through prayers, advice, and action plans. Learn to not just survive, but survive and thrive.

Divorce To Healing: Survive And Thrive

The heartbreak, the lost love, the grief and the shame that comes with unwanted divorce doesn’t have to stay forever. You don’t need to go through this alone. In this study, we’ll learn how we can lean heavily on God’s strength despite life’s most troubling events.

UNCOMMEN: Surviving Divorce

What you know is what gets you through. If you don’t know the right things when the rouge winds and tsunamis of life come, you’re going to fall over.  But if our lives are built on the rock solid, bedrock truth of the Bible, we know some unchanging truths.

How To Get Through What You're Going Through

This 15 day reading plan offers biblical insight for personal growth and wholeness from doctors Henry Cloud and John Townsend—bestselling authors of How People Grow and the Boundaries series. The devotions are perfect for those entering new phases of life or dealing with difficult relationships. Readings provide help in translating God’s Word into a plan for staying spiritually healthy.

Henry Cloud & John Townsend - Life Journey

Marriage is hard work. And things don't always go as we hoped they would. Whether your marriage has struggled because of betrayal or years of neglect, you can have a new marriage. This plan is just seven days, but you can read more in Cindy's book, Rebuilding A Marriage Better Than New.

Rebuilding A Marriage Better Than New

Dig into God's Word to find answers about divorce from Jesus, who is full of grace and truth. 

Divorce

Divorce grieves the heart of God. He hates seeing us in pain and holding onto guilt, shame, and fear. Despite our mistakes, He longs for us to accept His grace and know we are valued, cherished, and irreplaceable. No matter your circumstances, this plan will help you find healing from your divorce, so you can live the redeemed life God has for you—one full of hope, joy, and purpose.

Living Changed: After Divorce

Las rupturas son dolorosas e incómodas, y muchos de nosotros tendremos que caminar este oscuro y solitario camino. Para mí, es una de las cosas más difíciles sobre las que escribir o hablar: el dolor de la intimidad que no llegó al matrimonio. Así que aquí hay nueve lecciones para crear esperanza y amar a otros cuando se termina un “casi matrimonio”.  


Más allá del dolor de la ruptura

Author and pastor Debra B. Morton reveals the secret to surviving and even thriving in the midst of setbacks and painful circumstances.

How To Thrive In Life's Toughest Seasons By Pastor Debra Morton

No one gets married anticipating the moment when they will be signing divorce papers. The path to divorce is often paved with guilt, shame, fear, and unforgiveness. This devotional plan , written by two divorcees, seeks to give an honest and hopeful perspective on how you can walk through some of the lingering effects of divorce with the help of God.

Living in Christ After Divorce

A 15-day devotional drawing from Dr. Gary Chapman's popular three book set, "Help to Heal a Hurting Marriage." Excerpts from Loving Your Spouse When You Feel Like Walking Away, Anger and When Sorry Isn't Enough. 

Help For A Hurting Marriage

God wants you and your spouse to have a wonderfully fulfilling marriage—to be best friends, passionate lovers, and spiritual soulmates. Do you have doubts that such a marriage is possible? God assures us it is! It's His design! In this five-day reading plan, Chip Ingram looks at a passage from Ephesians 5 and shares how couples can find the fulfillment we all long for.

Marriage That Works

When your marriage is in a fragile state, there have been many misunderstandings, you are hurting and feel all alone, sometimes a little practical help can make a big difference. These 5 dos and don'ts may surprise you, but they are tried and true ways to find comfort, strength, and healing as you trust in the Lord to re-establish oneness and intimacy in your marriage.

Dos and Don'ts: A One-Week Plan to Help Your Marriage

This is a continuation of Growing Your Marriage. In this 4-day devotional Dr. Kim walks you through practical things you can start doing today to grow and deepen your marriage. This devotional will give you practical tips to improve your marriage. Each day has a short devotional, scripture, a short video, and application questions that will help you grow your marriage. 

Growing Your Marriage ‐ Part 2

Betrayal is one of the worst things we can do to another person. What do we do when we feel betrayed by a friend or a family member? Jesus is the expert at understanding Betrayal. Let’s look into His response to His betrayal and actually become good at knowing how to handle this hurtful but human issue.

Hollywood Prayer Network On Betrayal

Fight or flight? When marriage gets messy, the question is real and sobering. Though the promise you’ve made is “…till death do us part,” letting go seems like such an easier option. What choice will you make when it comes to your marriage? In this 5-day reading plan, Pete Briscoe provides biblical insight for couples who long to fight for an enduring marriage—not one they’re merely struggling to endure.

Enduring Marriage By Pete Briscoe

When life is hard and negative thoughts creep in, you can feel like you’re sinking under the weight. Unsinkable Faith helps you embrace God’s truth and provides practical tools to help you transform the way you think, feel, and live regardless of your circumstances.

Unsinkable Faith

Custody battles can impact a person emotionally, physically, and mentally, and having a supportive spouse through the process is imperative. In this 2 part Devotional, we will share practical ways to support your spouse through their custody battle 

How to Support Your Spouse Through A Custody Battle

A five-day devotional designed to complement the teaching series, “Trending: Divorce” by Orange Students. In this devotional, you’ll find encouragement to help you navigate changes in your family with the God who never changes. 

Trending: Divorce

Toni Nieuwhof is a former divorce lawyer and pastor’s wife who wants to help couples find joy in each other again, even after the lowest lows. She asks, do you wonder if you’re done with your marriage? If you’re seeking one more chance, hoping against all hope that your relationship can be turned around, these devotionals are for you. 

Before You Split

Satan uses popular culture, books, movies, and even other people to tell us what marriage "should" be. No wonder so many couples are unsatisfied and looking elsewhere to find happiness. Satan's ultimate goal is to divide husbands and wives and to destroy families, and he'll use anything at his disposal to do it. Pete Briscoe shines a spotlight on eight lies that can devastate your marriage.


Lies That Can Ruin a Marriage by Pete Briscoe 

You know the saying, "Won the battle but lost the war." It's a profound description of what can happen in a marriage if one spouse insists on always winning arguments and getting their own way. The victory may feel good in the short term, but it can do serious damage to your relationship, long term. Pete Briscoe brings a fresh perspective about what it really means to win at marriage.

Choosing To Lose Wins In Marriage By Pete Briscoe

Based on Series 2 of Fearless TV UK, in this devotional we will be looking at the fundamentals of healthy relationships. We will be focusing on sex, singleness and friendship, and seeing how the Word of God can help us to have fruitful and fearless relationships.

Baesics: The Devotional

Unity has the ability to transform both personal relationships and the body of Christ. This reading plan explores the 4 attributes in Ephesians 4 that lead to unity and how you can cultivate each, leading to transformational growth in your life and in the church.

Cultivating Unity

You’ll meet a lot of people in your life and you’ll need wisdom and discernment in order to pursue God honoring relationships. In the Wise Bond Bible plan readers will discover through scripture how to develop and identify positive characteristics of Christ-centered friendships, bonds and associations. 

Wise Bond

This reading plan includes seven daily devotions based on Louie Giglio’s curriculum Relat(able): Making Relationships Work. This study will explore what makes us relatable to others, how God can bring peace in the midst of conflict, and how we can help restore relationships that seem broken beyond repair.

Relat(able): Making Relationships Work

Life is a series of choices, each determining the trajectory it will take.  Will we choose allowing our hearts to be changed by God's Word which leads to life? Or will we default to our human nature, a passive choice leading to death?  