marriage Archives

How to Stay Crazy in Love with Your Spouse

Most couples are madly in love on their wedding day. They’re infatuated, passionate, and convinced they’ll always feel this way.

Over time, however, the sizzle begins to fizzle. There’s the first big argument, then little annoyances creep into the relationship, and the couple soon gets caught up in the daily grind of life. Before long, one spouse or the other begins to wonder, “Is this all there is to our marriage? Where did our love go?”

On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “How to Stay Crazy in Love with Your Spouse,” my colleagues Greg and Erin Smalley are with us to inspire couples to build a lifelong, loving relationship utilizing “love secrets”:

True love commits

True love seeks God

True love fights for peace

True love honors

True love needs time to grow

True love embraces

True love endures

We’re discussing what true love looks like and how married couples can express that love to each other in meaningful and godly ways throughout their lifetime.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage December 4, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Staying True to Your Marriage

The tingles can get you married. They can also get you divorced.

Dr. Gary Chapman has heard a lot of couples in premarital counseling talk about “the tingles” – that emotional flutter we feel when we’re attracted to each other.

“The tingles” play an important role in forming romantic relationships. They turn a simple hello into a lunch date, and before long the couple is so inseparable they decide to get married.

But the tingles fade.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage November 29, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Somehow Form a Family

In 1969, The Brady Bunch became the first sitcom in television history to depict what was then a new trend in America: a blended family. Mike and Carol Brady, who both had three children from previous relationships, strived hard each week to – as the theme song said – “somehow form a family.” Most of the problems they faced were humorous and easy to resolve in 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, things are rarely that simple in real life.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage November 20, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Blending Two Lives into One Flesh

Author Kari Trent Stageberg – daughter of psychologist and author Dr. John Trent – and her husband, Joey, coach couples toward greater health and connection.

They say there’s a moment in every marriage that permanently changes the relationship. It’s called the “merge moment.” It occurs when husbands and wives realize their differences have the potential to drive them apart.

“Merge moments” are like two rushing rivers crashing into one another. They can be noisy, messy, and unpredictable.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage November 14, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Look-Alike Couples

I’ve heard that if couples are married long enough, they start to look like one another. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I think couples do often look like the other couples they hang out with.

It may feel more comfortable to be friends with someone who’s just like you, but you’re depriving your marriage of a great chance to grow. Maybe the couple you spend the most time with is also newly married, or is raising teenagers, or is retired.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage November 8, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Conviction

It’s easy to overlook the importance of small compromises. They seem so insignificant. But small compromises eventually turn into big compromises that take us further than we want to go and cost us more than we ever thought possible.

That dark reality is captured in a movie from the early 1960s called Judgment at Nuremberg. The film dramatically portrays the military tribunal that prosecuted Nazi leaders accused of crimes against humanity during World War II.

Spencer Tracy plays Judge Dan Haywood, who leads the trial.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage November 6, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Your Marriage Can Win the Battle Against Pornography

Did you know:

55% of married Christian men look at porn monthly.

1 in 10 view porn daily.

71% of those who view 7+ hours of porn weekly report some kind of sexual dysfunction.

More than half (56%) of divorce cases involve a spouse having an obsession with pornographic websites.

Mark and Rosie Makinney’s family was nearly destroyed by the poison of pornography. They now help other couples discover the good news that God can heal, restore, and redeem anyone who turns to Him for help.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage November 1, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Seven Opportunities

Would you like a happier marriage? If so, then you have a choice to make.

In fact, you have seven choices to make.

According to studies, couples disagree almost 2,500 times per year, which averages out to seven times a day. That’s seven opportunities every day to drive your relationship further apart. Or to draw it closer together. Which one depends on you. Literally. You get to choose.

You see, a lot of couples fall prey to the myth that their conflict is the result of their differences.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage October 26, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Keep Failing

The secret to success isn’t avoiding failure. It’s learning from your mistakes and continuing to move forward.

The television series Alone is a survival competition where participants survive alone in the wilderness for as long as possible. Contestants are given minimal equipment and must build their own shelters, start their own fires, and find their own food. The physical demands are brutal.

One of the contestants, Colter Barnes, lost 86 pounds over 67 days in the wild and had to be medically evacuated.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith, marriage September 21, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Drawing Closer to God and Each Other

Why did you get married?

For your spouse?

Or for yourself?

Be honest. You got married because the relationship made you happy.

Don’t feel too guilty. The rest of us probably did the same thing. We thought life with this person would make our lives better. And while that’s not entirely selfish – God wants us to enjoy our marriage to our spouse, after all – many couples spend their first years of marriage chasing individual interests.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage September 20, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura