Daly Focus Blog
A crisis can tear a family apart.
Evan and Elisa Morgan learned how to forge a strong partnership by going through the fires of crisis – one of which involved their teenage daughter.
Evan was the CFO of Denver Seminary. Elisa was the president of Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS). Their daughter was an honor roll student, a state-ranked swimmer, and an active member of her youth group. She even participated in a mission trip to serve HIV/AIDS orphans in Kenya.
How do you know you’re in an emotionally abusive marriage?
You are regularly:
Dismissed.Deceived.Dominated.Degraded.Diminished.
A random careless comment from your spouse is one thing. But when you are regularly mistreated, it’s a pattern. A destructive pattern.
As a matter of course, you’re not free to be yourself. You’re not free to express your own opinion or your own ideas without being shot down, ridiculed, or labelled as ungodly, unspiritual, or stupid. You’re not encouraged to be the person that God has called you to be.
Today, I’ve got a simple idea to help you build a great marriage. It’s fun, too.
Laugh together.
Studies show that couples who laugh are healthier, happier, and more connected. Even little giggles between you can create bonds that you’ll share forever.
Laughter is a powerful connecter. In fact, laughter is often more about connection than it is humor. Studies show that we laugh more when we’re with other people than when we’re alone.
Some of my greatest memories involve Jean and me laughing together in the car or around the dinner table.
Could you use a simple tip to improve your marriage?
How about 100 simple tips?
Matt and Lisa Jacobson, our guests on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Simple Steps to Improve Your Marriage,” actually have them for you.
After 25 years of marriage, Matt and Lisa looked at each other one day and decided, “Let’s each write down one hundred things that we’ve done to create a loving marriage.” When they compared notes, they realized that the present is always the culmination of little decisions that stack up over time.
Not much can exploit a couple’s differences like Hollywood. So, when Kirk and Chelsea Cameron married in 1991, they knew they were attempting to build a life together in a place notorious for tearing marriages down.
They spent the first several months on the lookout for outside dangers to their relationship. But a conflict one night in their kitchen taught them that the culture surrounding them wasn’t the most significant influence on whether or not their marriage would be successful.
Money is one of the biggest sources of conflict in marriage.
There are two important reasons husbands and wives struggle in this area. The first is that a lot of couples assume that the solution to their financial problems is more money. It’s not. Extra income may ease a few immediate financial pressures, but it’s usually not a long-term solution.
Generally, the more money a couple earns, the more likely they are to elevate their standard of living and, therefore, their spending.
Dara’s son Timothy was turning three, and to celebrate, friends, grandparents and other family members gathered for his birthday party. All had a great time filled with cake, presents and pictures. Proof was captured in Dara’s numerous social media posts. It was the perfect day that every parent looks forward to.
Unfortunately, Dara had no idea that it would be her last normal day in a long while.
It was the day before she discovered her husband’s pornography use.
Odds are, you or someone you know has stepchildren. According to a recent statistic, 40 percent of families in the United States are blended.
That is a lot of people who are trying to build something new out of the ashes of their former lives. Divorce. Death. Blended families come together for many reasons, but they each face a number of challenges.
On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Cultivating Love in Blended Families,” authors Dr.
They say the eyes are a window to the soul.
If so, husbands, what are your wife’s eyes telling you? Are they alive and vibrant? Or are they tired and withdrawn?
The difference could lie in how she sees herself in your eyes. Does she see a reflection of herself as described in Scripture? Genesis 2:18 says, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’”
The Hebrew word for “helper” conveys the idea of a “completer.” Far from being subservient or inferior to their husbands, God has designed wives to be equal companions.
Are you worried that your spouse isn’t your soul mate?
If so, let me encourage you with this: soul mates aren’t found, they’re formed.
Understanding that difference often separates couples who have a healthy, intimate relationship from those who divorce.
Juana Mikels and her husband, Terry, are proof of that. College sweethearts, they walked down the aisle believing the planets must have aligned for them to find each other. Not long into their marriage, however, it was as if the planets had fallen out of their orbits.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
