Who Do You Let In?

Marriage is a sacred institution, put in place by God, to bring joy and companionship to couples. At the same time, marriage is hard and is comprised of different seasons. I sat with a young couple this afternoon who have been married for few years. Life seemed to be moving along pretty well without too…

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Who Do Kids Prefer?

The question that I am asking is this – do kids prefer people or animals? In a universal ethical principles game developed by MIT researchers, some surprising results were revealed. When children were placed in a hypothetical situation that involved human versus animal life, they frequently chose to send a car careening into a person…

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Which is Most Important?

I recently had a discussion in my university Marriage and Family class regarding finances, which is often seen as a major source of marital conflict.  The discussion centered around debt and financial priorities.  It was interesting to hear what various students would go into debt for.  The list ranged from houses and cars to televisions…

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Where Do You Sit?

Earlier this week I had the privilege of being interviewed by a radio station in Ohio.  As we discussed the challenges of marriage, we began to explore the details of relationships that have “gone cold.”  These may be couples who have not given needed attention to their relationship, resulting in a staleness or complacency.  On…

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Where Do You Sit?

You find yourself in one of those discussions again that just doesn’t feel good.  A disagreement has arisen with your spouse and you are trying to work through it.  But something is eating at you.  You find yourself irritated and you are not sure why.  You feel as though you are being condescended to; almost…

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When Your Spouse Seems Angry

We have all experienced those times when we have walked into the room and our spouse has “that look.”  I have heard it called the “evil eye,” or the “stink eye”, but regardless of what you call it – we all know the look.  We used to get it from our parents.  We didn’t like…

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When it is Hard to Talk

We all have times when conversation flows pretty easily, as well as other occasions when communication can be strained. Then there are those times when it is downright difficult. So, what can you do to jump start your conversations with your mate? I want to suggest 4 strategies today to help reinvigorate your communication. 1)…

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When Disagreements are Hard

Remember when you were dating your future spouse and you seemed to agree on everything? You wanted two children and so did he. You both liked Italian food, wanted to travel, enjoyed hiking, and had the same spiritual goals. Nothing could be better. However, once you got married, you discovered that you weren’t quite as…

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