Thirty years ago today Mark and I said “I do.” My 19-year-old mind had danced with visions of perfection of both our wedding day and our marriage relationship. My 23-year-old husband had similar expectations. The day of our wedding turned out to be one of...
Thirty times on June 25, we have celebrated our wedding anniversary. Over the years we’ve celebrated in many different ways: 1) We’ve written love notes to each other. 2) We’ve gone away for an overnight at a hotel in town. (We use Priceline.com to...
Last week we talked about what to do when you don’t want to invest in your broken marriage. Through email and comments on the post, there were several resource suggestions that I wanted to share today. Some I was familiar with and some were brand new to me....
Dear Jill, I read one of your articles. The last sentence spoke to me. I will paraphrase: Could I make changes in the pace of my life to allow me to respond, rather than react? I am working on this. My question, however is; what if I am at a place where I don’t feel...
I’m an internal processor. That means I think about a lot of things that I never talk about. It’s how I’m wired and works well for me when I’m operating as an individual. However, it proves to be a challenge in my marriage. I will often...
Today’s Marriage Monday is brought to us by SHAUNTI FELDHAHN, a wife and mom first, as well as a popular speaker and best-selling author. After receiving a graduate degree from Harvard, Shaunti started out on Wall Street, but now applies her analytical...
The cookies slid easily off my spatula, but choosing to let his words slide off my back was another matter altogether. I could tell from the mood in the kitchen that my husband didn’t even know his comment pricked my heart or that a slow bleed was threatening to...
Have you ever said in frustration about your spouse, “We are so incompatible!”? If you have (and most of us have), it is an indication of unrealistic expectations. The truth is, every married couple is wonderfully incompatible! Sure, some of us share more...
Dear Jill, Have you read anything good lately or have you been too busy writing and speaking? Robin Dear Robin, I have still been reading! It seems that I always have a book or two or three going! I just finished Karen Kingsbury’s book, The Chance. I...
When Mark and I are affectionate in front of the kids, the older ones will yell, “Get a room!” If they only knew how often we really do! (Oops…some of my older kids read my blog…I guess they know now!) It was several years ago that I heard a...
Starting today, I’ll be offering a new feature on my weekly blog. Each Wednesday will be Q&A Day. I spend a good portion of my time each week answering questions that moms ask over social media about marriage, parenting, living with less, faith, and more....
Recently Mark and I discovered a marriage app for our smartphones called Pair (I just looked it up in the iTunes store and I believe they’ve renamed it to Couple now.) We’ve been using it to communicate with each other throughout the day. You can draw...
One thing that Mark and I have been working on over the last year is learning to ask for comfort and give comfort to one another. What we’re finding is that this increases vulnerability and deepens emotional intimacy. Before we understood the importance of...
Today’s guest post is from Pam Farrel. Pam and her husband, Bill, are international speakers and bestselling authors of over 35 books including Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti. Pam is a special friend of mine…we bonded as we co-wrote the...
Mark and I recently saw a friend we hadn’t seen for a long time. We asked how he and his wife were doing. He said, “We’re learning to flirt well and flirt often.” I loved his answer! This is a couple that’s been married about 30 years!...
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