Category Archives: Creating The Marriage You Want

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Marriage Quotes That Inspire Us

Nothing can bring a real sense of security into the home except true love. Billy Graham

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. Ruth Pell Graham

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. C.S. Lewis

As God by creation made two of one, so again by marriage He made one of two. Thomas Adams

A long-lasting marriage is built by two people who believe in -and live by- the solemn promise they made. Darlene Schacht

Happily ever after is not a fairy tale. It’s a choice. Fawn Weaver

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Why Your Marriage Photo Is So Powerful

God built us with incredible senses.

We walk into a room with a smell of baking bread and it triggers the memory of a visit to our grandparents home when we were children.

We see a piece of artwork that takes us back in time to a place with deep meaning for us.

Laying almost asleep, we hear the faintest whisper from our loving spouse, “I really want you right now, are you still awake?”

The Power of The Human Senses

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Relationship Counseling: Getting Help When Things Look Hopeless

Every couple has struggles.

Every couple!

Every spouse feels, at one time or another, like quitting.

Every spouse!

Relationships are hard. Doing life together forever is one of the greatest challenges in life.

Looking For Help In All The Wrong Places

When a spouse is struggling in their relationship, they will seek help. They usually begin by searching on the internet for relationship articles addressing their issue. They also search through magazines and books for some source of information that may be helpful.

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Marriage Boot Camp: Investing In Your Marriage

Before you get a drivers license, states make you complete a drivers education class. The class is the driving basics. Its intention is to set drivers up for success. Basic skills necessary for driving are taught. Most states also require a driver to have experience driving under the mentorship of a driving instructor.

But there are no such requirements for a marriage license. Once the decision to spend the rest of your life with that one special person is made, all relationship focused activities tend to take a back seat to the details of the wedding and living logistics.

Benefits Of Marriage Boot Camp

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Marriage Heat – Why Married Sex is More Satisfying

Over the last fifty plus years of research, married couples report higher satisfaction with their sex lives than singles or cohabitating couples. Sexual frequency and overall sexual satisfaction are consistently higher than what singles and cohabitating couples report.

‘… each man should feel free to join together in sexual intimacy with his own wife, and each woman should join with her own husband. Husbands and wives have reciprocal duties. Each husband has the responsibility to meet his wife’s sexual desires, and each wife should do the same for her husband. In marriage neither the husband nor the wife should act as if his or her body is private property—your bodies now belong to one another, and together they are whole. So do not withhold sex from one another, unless both of you have agreed to devote a certain period of time to prayer.’ I Corinthians 7:2b- 5a

What Makes Married Sex Better?

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Be Spontaneous And Rekindle Your Relationship

Your marriage may have become routine like some of the people we have worked with over the years in our Life Together Forever Weekends or our Marriage Saving Intensives.

“The is no passion in our relationship.”

“Our marriage is boring and dead.”

“I’m bored.  It’s the same thing every evening, every weekend.”

‘Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?’ Proverbs 20:6 (NIV)

The Challenge Of A Lifelong Relationship

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Are You Growing Or Dying?

You are either growing or dying.

From the first day of life, everything is either growing or dying. The tree, insect, animal, or bird could be in the process of developing, living, spreading, stretching, flourishing, burgeoning, maturing, increasing, enlarging, or sprouting. Or it is in the process of decaying, fading, declining, disintegrating, passing, vanishing, withering, or perishing.

You are either growing or dying. If you are not continuing to learn and develop your self, you are becoming less of the person you really want to be. And the day you stop, give up, or quit trying to be the best you that you can possibly be, you begin the march toward the end.

‘You are like a mist that appears one moment and then vanishes another.’ James 4:14

Status Quo Doesn’t Work

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Make Your Spouse Feel Like They Belong

We were flying back from a weekend recently and ran across a couple in their late sixties who were holding hands. They had been away celebrating their thirty-eighth wedding anniversary. As always, we asked them, “what is the secret to being married thirty-eight years.

She smiled and said, “I’ve always made our home a place where he felt like he belonged.”

We All Need To Feel Like We Belong

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Stuck In A Bad Marriage

Deidra was crying on the other end of the phone. “I don’t think I can take this any longer. I’ve been stuck in a bad marriage for eleven years. I never wanted to be like my parents and leave, but this is no way to live life.”

Deidra is like many of the couples we have met over the years in our Life Together Forever Weekends and in our Marriage Saving Intensives. For religious and cultural reasons, she is highly committed to her marriage. But her marriage is stuck in a seemingly never-ending negative cycle and it is affecting every other area of her life.

Signs You Are Stuck In A Bad Marriage

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Is Shame Impacting Your Marriage?

Everyone experiences shame. Few have the courage to become aware of the shame they carry and how it is consciously and unconsciously impacting their lives. Fewer still have the courage to talk openly about shame and help others discover and heal from shame in their lives.

Brene Brown, acclaimed researcher and author of I Thought It Was Just Me defines shame as “the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging.”

Shame experiences include:

  • Rejection.
  • Failure.
  • When people see you fail.
  • Being wrong.
  • When people see your mask pulled off and you are exposed.
  • Being defective.
  • Feeling like an outsider.
  • When people think you are soft, weak, or not enough.
  • Your flaws are revealed.
  • Showing fear.
  • Being criticized or ridiculed.

‘Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.’ Gen 2:25 (NIV)

The Power of Shame