Marriages struggle. Ok – not a profound statement in a world where marriages are falling apart all around us. But it is still a true statement. Whether I am at a Men’s Bible Study or running into friends at the store, a common question that I get asked is, “How can I make my marriage…
We began last week to look at the importance of intimacy in a marriage as well as how easily it can slip away. It is not uncommon for a couple to begin to experience a decrease in their intimate connections, but if left unaddressed, it can develop into an extended period of distance. For some,…
Time and again I hear from couples who talk about their lost intimacy. It seemed to develop easily in the beginning of their marriage, but now . . . they are uncertain, intimidated, and even afraid of intimacy. But what happened? King Solomon, in writing the book “Song of Songs” in the Bible, was composing…
Albert Einstein said, “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” While I feel certain that we don’t want to think of ourselves as dead, we also know how prone we are to lose our sense of wonder. Ask yourself –…
I sit with couples on a regular basis who have been impacted by infidelity. And I am not talking only about a physical affair. While unfaithfulness can certainly be sexual, it can just as easily be emotional. It can be engaged in online or in person. As I have written about in previous posts, a…
I don’t know if I asked the question “What If?” a lot when I was a child but I know that I certainly thought it. “What if I sneak a cookie and nobody notices?” “What if I light a firecracker that I have placed under a brick?” Or, one of my favorites was when the…
“And they lived happily ever after.” Whether we have read that line in storybooks or heard it in movies, if you have been married for any length of time, your “happy ever after bubble” probably burst a long time ago. But Why? What happened? You may have felt that you were the luckiest person on…
A recently read quote – “If you want to kill a relationship outright, have an affair. But if you want to bludgeon it to death slowly, use criticism.” Ongoing criticism causes people to feel unloved, attacked, disrespected, and many other feelings that you could add to the list. If I were to ask an audience,…
“How come David gets a bigger piece of cake than I do. That’s not fair.” “It’s her turn. I had to unload the dish washer last time. That’s not fair.” We have all heard our children make these kind of statements because they think everything should be fair. We often just chalk up their complaining…
It has been a long week and you are looking forward to Friday night. Between work, the kids, and your parents – you are exhausted. You are in dire need of rejuvenation; of an energy boost. So, you approach your spouse to discuss what the two of you might want to do with, what has…