Someone once said, “Expectations are preconceived resentments.” We think, in marriage, that there’s a lot of truth to that statement. That’s why we think it’s important for couples to ditch the expectations and that’s what...
Last week Mark and I were talking with another couple about marriage challenges. She needed to return something to a store and she wanted to ask her husband to stop by the store on the way home from our house. She hesitated though, because her husband hates to shop....
Conflict in marriage is normal. We’re two human beings trying to forge a life together. We think differently, we process life differently, we see the world differently…is it any wonder that our differing ways sometimes conflict with each other? Conflict...
On the 25th of June, Mark and I will be celebrating 28 years of marriage. To celebrate, we spent last week in Florida together…just the two of us. We decided to take that trip exactly 7 days before we left. Crazy, huh? Spontaneity is an important part of...
Today’s Marriage Monday comes straight from our heart. It is a video clip from our ABC’s of a Healthy Marriage Seminar about the needs of a marriage. This clip focuses on the need for affection and sex. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJisQWOG__g (Click...
Yesterday we had some drive time which turns into great talk time. We talked about how we’ve made so much progress in letting the small stuff go. In doing so, we’ve reduced our stress, made our marriage a safer relationship, and kept conflict at bay. We...
Today’s post is a guest post by Hearts at Home speaker Michele Cushatt. Michele is presenting a blended family workshop at our 2011 Hearts at Home conferences. It received rave reviews at the National Conference in March. You can find Michelle online at...
Sometimes we have the least patience with those we live with. We’re kinder to strangers than we are our spouse. Today’s Marriage Monday is about the power of kindness. Mark says… We become so comfortable with those closest to us, that we often...
When two become one, does it mean you have to do everything together? Today’s Marriage Monday looks at what “doing life together” really means. Mark says… Yesterday, we spent much of the afternoon and early evening working in the yard. There...
The Bible tells us that when a man and woman are married, they are to “leave and cleave.” That wording is found in the King James version of Genesis 2:24. We don’t tend to use the word “cleave” in today’s language so here’s...
This week I’ll be in Colorado. I’m going to speak at two MOPS groups, to do some recording for Focus on the Family, and to get the word out to the moms in Colorado that there will be a Hearts at Home conference in Colorado October 7-8! Over 28 years of...
For the last part of last week and the first part of this week, we’re focusing on slowing down and simplifying. Today’s Marriage Monday continues on in that theme. Mark says… When Jill and I have our schedule maxed out, our marriage suffers. We...
In one of our more difficult seasons of marriage, we discovered that we were speaking different languages to each other. Mark was loving me the way he wanted to be loved and I was loving him the way I wanted to be loved. The problem was that we felt unloved by each...
So yesterday morning…on the way to church…Mark and I got into an argument. Yes, the Marriage Monday people have conflict in their marriage…and yes, they have conflict even on the way to church. We’re still not done with the argument yet, mind...
Several years ago, we decided to step into unfamiliar territory by taking some ballroom dancing lessons. We made the weekly Monday night lessons our date night, often stopping for coffee or dessert afterwards. Dancing has become a shared hobby for us…and...
