intimacy Archives - Page 3 of 4

These 4 Things Will Help Keep Intimacy Alive During the Toddler Years

If you’re the parent of a toddler, you might feel like you’re too tired and busy to even think about sex with your spouse – and for good reason. Your sleep schedule is off. Work levels around the house are at an all-time high. If all that isn’t enough, there’s still a rambunctious toddler – or toddlers – that needs to be cared for, played with, loved on, and disciplined.

With all that’s going on, it might be tempting for some, especially moms, to view sex as merely another item on a never-ending to-do list.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, intimacy, sex October 23, 2013 by Jim Daly

5 Ways to Sabotage Your Marriage Before It Starts

Most people don’t get married planning to divorce, but the research suggests so much of what they do before they wed sadly leads them to that place.

Part of the reason might be that, as a culture, we’re often more enamored with the wedding than the actual marriage. A colleague of mine once worked in a church office. He regularly encountered heartbroken brides-to-be who made the mistake of booking the reception hall before the sanctuary, only to discover the church was already taken.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, intimacy, marriage, sex, wife September 25, 2013 by Jim Daly

8 Lessons from the World’s Happiest Couples

The May edition of Reader’s Digest features a breezy article titled “Is Your Marriage Normal or Nuts?”

Don’t answer just yet.

But within the piece is a short list detailing eight lessons from the “World’s Happiest Couples.” I’d like to share them with you and ask if you might add to it:

1. Kindness Helps

74 percent of couples who said they were happy give each other back rubs.

2. It’s Not Necessarily about the Looks

20 percent of the happiest partners say they’re not physically attracted to their spouse.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, intimacy, marriage, wife April 4, 2013 by Jim Daly

5 Ways to Help Soothe the Sting of Valentine’s Day

I appreciated the fun response to yesterday’s post about Valentine’s Day. But I’m also aware that February 14th can be a difficult day for many people.

Every Valentine’s Day the world fairly explodes with flowers, chocolate, and the color pink. If love is abundant in your life, those trappings can be a joyful reminder. But for the lonely it can make for a long, difficult day.

For many people, Valentine ’s Day isn’t a celebration of love and romance at all.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: intimacy, technology February 14, 2013 by Jim Daly

Don’t Be “That Guy” this Valentine’s Day

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When it comes to the 14th of February, the one thing I don’t want to be referred to is this:

“That guy.”

You know who “That guy” is…

At worst, he’s the guy who forgets about Valentine’s Day altogether, at least until he gets to the office and is reminded when he sees all the red and the flowers and boxes of heart-shaped candy on the desks of his female colleagues.

He’s the guy who waits until 6 PM on Valentine’s night and stops off at the supermarket to try and fulfill his obligation.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: intimacy, sex, wife February 13, 2013 by Jim Daly

5 Ways to Strengthen Your Marriage

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Terri Orbuch is a psychologist and research professor at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. She recently identified some of the top common regrets of divorced couples.

“Divorced individuals who step back and say, ‘This is what I’ve done wrong and this is what I will change,’ have something powerful to teach others,” she recently told the Wall Street Journal.

Here are five things divorced couples regret not having done more of with a few comments of my own:

Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, intimacy, marriage, wife August 28, 2012 by Jim Daly

Would You Take Friends on Your Honeymoon?

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According to a recent article in The New York Times, more and more couples are bringing their friends and even their parents on their honeymoon. In fact, there’s even a newly coined term for the practice:

The Buddymoon.

To borrow Dave Barry’s famous phrase, “No, I’m not making this up.”

Interestingly, though, it’s the newly married couple who are instigating the extended celebration with family and friends.

With cohabitation on the rise, a special romantic getaway for the newlyweds doesn’t quite have the same draw.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, intimacy, marriage, sex, wife August 15, 2012 by Jim Daly

Don’t Rush Into Marriage For Sex, But …

It was the comedian Jeff Foxworthy who once said that getting married for sex is like buying a 747 for the free peanuts.

He’s making a joke, of course, but he’s pointing to a serious issue.

Do you know many young people who rush into marriage in order to satisfy both a physical urge and a moral obligation?

It would be possible to identify such cases, but given, by some estimates, that over 80% of Christians who marry aren’t virgins, that’s certainly not the norm.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: intimacy, sex July 10, 2012 by Jim Daly

Trying to Determine When a Date is a Date

It’s not a trick question. When it comes to two single people of the opposite sex sharing a meal or a movie together, when does it become a “date” – as opposed to just two people of the opposite sex sharing a meal or a movie together?

A group of my colleagues and I were talking about this the other day. The consensus seemed to be centered on the matter of money.

If the guy pays, it’s probably a date.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: intimacy, marriage June 25, 2012 by Jim Daly

Marrying Yourself?

Straight from the files of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World:

Writing in the American Prospect, Samhita Mukhopadhyay suggests that a growing number of people, especially women, are deciding to marry themselves. Here she quotes an individual named Sasha Cagan about such cases popping up around the country:

The choice to marry yourself takes the coming-of-age ritual to a new level. It’s not just about getting towels or diamond rings or attention. The common theme in most of the stories that I hear is a commitment to take care of oneself as one hopes or imagines that a lover would.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, husband, intimacy, sex, wife May 30, 2012 by Jim Daly