Celebrating Marriage Archives
Take a look at this marriage clip. If someone were to ask you what you thought of marriage, what would you say? Think for a moment. You are walking through Times Square in NYC and someone puts a mic in front of you and asks you if marriage is dead? Perhaps you'd say "No, of course not." But, what if they asked you to elaborate? My counsel to you: follow the advice of Peter in the New Testament when he said, "Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for hope that you have." (That's part of I Peter 3:15.) Peter is talking about sharing Christ as our hope, of course,...
Read More...
In preparation for a speaking engagement recently I came across a cool verse about marriage. The writer of Ecclesiastes was an interesting dude. He went 'all over the place' in his philosophy and back again. At one point he was saying all of life was nothing but folly. In chapter 3, he provided some great lyrics that many of us first heard on the radio in the 60's by the Byrds: To everything turn, turn, turn There is a season, turn, turn, turn And a time to every purpose under heaven... But in chapter 9 he gets personal with this marriage stuff. The philosophy becomes frighteningly simply yet undeniably wise: "Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days...
Read More...
Whatever the area of achievement, many people think you really haven't celebrated unless you find yourself spending tons of money. The logic seems to go like this: the more money spent, the truer the fact is that you have "really celebrated". As a married couple, there will be many different accomplishments either of you two together - or each of you - will experience. It is important to celebrate all of them. How you celebrate may differ greatly, but celebrate you must. We were just married and in school so you can imagine how much money we had. I like to say that we were so poor, we couldn't pay anything - we couldn't even pay attention! But we celebrated...
Read More...
Take a moment this Christmas to remember the important things. I’m not referring to the most important aspect of the season. That would be Christ Himself. Perhaps you’ve heard in various ways through the years “Don’t leave Christ out of Christmas”. That’s an old but wise saying that needs to be heeded. In whatever way you choose to do acknowledge and worship Him, He needs to be prominent in all that takes place in your season for sure. Yet there are other parts of your life that are important as well. Let’s look at your marriage, for example. (After all, it’s why you are reading this blog, right?) Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to reaffirm your relationship to each other....
Read More...
If we get past the fears and circumstances God uses to shape our character, what’s next. Real Love! That’s right, a love that carries us through the best life can offer. If you want that kind of love, you must do the following: Live Beyond Yourself…You must move from your world to a struggling world to a spiritual world. The incredible part of this journey is that once God opens your heart and moves you beyond your world and your selfishness, you can never go back. This is a difficult step for each of us as human beings. However, each morning we have the awesome choice to get up and instead of life being about “me”, it can be about...
Read More...
The Toward A Growing Marriage conference this weekend could not have gone any better at Ridgecrest Conference Center. We had a little over 700 in attendance and the weather was perfect! Friday night was all fun starting off with Denver & the Mile High Orchestra. This band knows how to entertain and get the audience involved. Denver shared about their experience on the show “The Next Great American Band” on Fox. He also shared about reading the 5 Love Languages with Amy (his wife) before they got married and how much it impacted their lives. I mention the 5 Love Languages part because Gary Chapman was our guest speaker. We then took a 30-minute break and I was really nervous...
Read More...
Friendship… what does that mean? Do you have a friendship with your spouse? Many times there are things that happen in our marriage that cause us to withdraw from each other or back away from intimacy with each other. We put walls up to protect our heart, and if we live in “protection” mode, we are missing out on true friendships, both with those around us and with our spouse. Let’s take FRIENDSHIP and define what it really means… F means that a true friend is FOR YOU. They are for you when everyone else walks away, especially when the hard times come. It is the spouse that is FOR YOU when you lose your job, there is a death...
Read More...
With daylight savings time upon us and the summer rapidly approaching, what a great time to begin thinking about quality time spent as a family. The world has a tendency to keep us so busy and if we are not careful, our spouse and children tend to get our leftovers. Time passes so quickly and it is impossible to get back the yesterdays. As we look back at our own children, the thing they valued most from us was not what we gave them but rather the time spent together laughing and playing as a family. Life requires that we have vision if we are ever able to achieve anything great. As couples, we also need to have a vision...
Read More...
How do we spend so many years together and then lose our love for the Lord and each other so quickly? According to the divorce rate, it seems that is the curse tearing marriages apart today. Isn’t it strange that the very things that have made us “one”, that have united us toward a common cause, can sometimes be the very thing that separates us? Maybe it’s the death of a child, the busyness of life or a season of hard times, but if we can stop and go back to the place where we started, maybe it isn’t as hard as we thought to recapture the place where we felt love for a lifetime, a willingness to commit to...
Read More...
Growing up, Christine and I played sports year round, mostly on courts and fields. We loved everything about playing--the competitive spirit, endorphins, the thrill of winning, cheering fans, and the roar of the crowd after a close call. Last week, we experienced an adrenaline rush of another kind -- actually being two of those cheering fans on the sidelines....the sidelines of a rink. We joined our friends, Jason and Shanna, for a few hours to watch the Nashville Predators take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. This was our first hockey game and it was incredible. We didn’t make it on the Jumbotron but we did get to see three fights. We certainly don’t condone fighting but fights seem to be...
Read More...
Say it Pleasantly - Proverbs 16:21 "The wise heart will be called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness." Communication experts tell us that only 7% of communication is content and 38% is tone of voice. Just because someone loves you, like your spouse, doesn't mean an abrasive tone in your voice is appealing. No one likes to be patronized, spoken to rudely or sharply, and no one likes to constantly be spoken to in a coarse tone. It is important that if we want others to hear us and to listen when we speak, we must scrutinize our communication habits and maintain a pleasant tone. Unfortunately, many married couples are living in a cycle of abrasiveness. Couples speak to...
Read More...
"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing." ~ Zephaniah 3:17 We recently had our first grandbaby, Morgan Lily. What a joy!!! The first time I saw her, I was amazed at how instantly we had such a deep love for her. I found myself looking at all the details of her little face, her hands and her feet. It's crazy how you can hold and love on other people's babies and it be such a fun experience, but to hold this baby was nothing I have ever experienced before. I could not get enough...
Read More...
As I sit and watch the Thursday night football game, I find myself wondering why the announcers think they have to do so much talking? I know - it's their job - but do they really get paid by the word? I mean, so often it seems they are talking just to hear themselves talk. As married couples, we have to make sure we are not guilty of talking just to hear ourselves talk. Conversation is such an important part of a relationship, but if we are not careful, too much talking can actually hurt communication. So, the third principle in being heard by your spouse is to Say it Briefly! The writer of Proverbs says it this way. In...
Read More...