From Rupture to Repair: Working Towards Healing in Your Relationship
Every relationship experiences ruptures. Husband/wife, parent/child, good friends – we are all sinners, and that means some rupture in relationships…
Family Life
Throwing Down the Idols of Marriage, Singleness, or Parenthood
Relationships are usually complicated. And the church has usually idolized one particular relationship status to the detriment of another. It’s…
Parents, Kids, Technology – and Sex
At its best kids and technology seem like a match made in heaven. But too often it seems more like…
How to Navigate the Power Dynamics in Your Marriage
Who’s got the power in your marriage? Where does that power come from? Can you find more power? What if…
Three Keys to Dropping the Insanity in Your Marriage
Doing the same thing and expecting a different result; isn’t that the definition of insanity? You’re not a failure if…
How the Old “You” Will Have to Die for Your Marriage to Survive
OH! That’s not what the preacher said when he or she pronounced you man and wife. Dying is not what…
Deciding Whether to Leave or Not Leave Your Marriage
“Should I stay or should I go?” I hear that from married people all the time. Emotions, memories, trauma, disappointment,…
Is Marriage Worth the Struggle?
Yesterday I had a long talk with a couple whose marriage almost ended. After some serious bad behavior they separated…
How Gratitude Transforms Your Marriage
Thanksgiving comes this week in the United States. Many research studies demonstrate how intentional gratitude can improve your mental and…
How to Strengthen Your Marriage While Navigating Midlife
Midlife is a season of change. As a woman, you’re approaching or going through menopause and everything seems disrupted –…
How to Strengthen Your Marriage Through the Holidays
The holiday season is always stressful. In spite of the joy, for many people the holiday blues are very real.…
Finding Breakthrough from Guilt as a Parent
When you’re hoping and praying for a breakthrough for your child, most parents struggle with a measure of guilt. If…
When You Need a Breakthrough For Your Child
If you’re a parent, there’s little you care about more than the wellbeing of your children and your relationship with…
When Your Spouse Chooses Work Over Family
You may have appreciated your spouse’s initiative and work ethic at first. But now the energy and hours they devote…
What Forgiveness Does NOT Do for your Marriage
Your spouse is messing up BAD. He/she is having an affair, getting drunk, hiding out-of-control spending, using pornography, or engaging…
Ten Questions to Understand Your Spouse Better
How well do you know your husband or wife? You may have thought you knew them quite well when you…
12 Things Your Spouse Needs to Hear You Say During This Crisis
Stress can make people prickly. Crisis can uncover both the worst and the best in people. You need some grace,…
Your Marriage Under Lockdown
If things are wonderful between you and your spouse, lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic may seem great; you’ve got…
Finding Spiritual Intimacy with your Spouse
God designed marriage to be an object lesson of the intimacy He desires with each one of us. That includes…
What You CAN Control in Your Marriage
Human beings love to be in control. But in marriage, when one person tries to control another true intimacy is…
How I Decided to Marry a Divorced Man
Remarriage after divorce is one of those topics that can make otherwise “good” Christians become prickly, self-righteous, or downright vindictive.…
How to Help, and Not Help, a Struggling Marriage
The marriage of someone close to you is in serious trouble. You may be tempted to tell your friend, “Why…
Four Things I Learned About a Healthy Blended Family
Remarriages have a discouraging track record. Blended families have more than the usual set of challenges. But that doesn’t mean…
When God Calls You to Stay in a Bad Marriage
Every marriage will have periods of challenge, times when “till death do us part” seems beyond your ability to handle.…
How to Know if you are Released from your Marriage
Jesus said that even though it was not God’s original design for marriage, divorce is “allowed” in some circumstances “because…
How to Get on the Same Page with your Spouse
Two people sliding into marriage don’t naturally “fall into” being aligned. Their expectations are different, their goals are different, their…
What it Means to Be On the Same Page With Your Spouse
One of the most frequent desires I hear from married people is, “I wish my spouse and I could get…
Three Keys to Lasting Love
Valentine’s Day is coming up next week. If you’re a wife, you may be thinking, “I hope he remembers!” If…
She Needs You to Lead
This one is for husbands. (I know; you’ll probably keep reading even if you’re not a husband.) Let me share…
Merry Married Christmas to You
The holiday season can add a lot of stress to your marriage. Time and money pressures build up. Some relatives…
Is Your Marriage Beyond Repair?
How bad is bad enough? How long do you need to “put up with” seriously destructive behavior from your spouse?…
How to Take Charge of Your Marriage
There are two opposite and equally destructive strategies many husbands and wives fall into when it comes to seeking marital…
5 Ways to Keep Family Dysfunction from Ruining Christmas
Family is a big deal around Christmas. The memories you have of Christmases past – both good and bad –…
How to Pray With Your Spouse
Praying together with your spouse can be one of the most intimate, healing, and meaningful aspects of your relationship. You…
When Is It Abuse?
God designed marriage to be a transformative, healing, growth-producing, fulfilling relationship full of intimacy and love. In our sinful messed-up…
5 Things Your Husband Needs From You
So many people look at marriage as a way to get their own needs met. In a godly healthy marriage…
7 Personal Christmas Gift Ideas for Someone You Love
It’s almost Christmas! Some families, like ours, plan to open gifts on Christmas Eve. Some are planning to go to…
What I Wish Christian Parents Would Teach Kids About Sex
At 15 years old she was scared. Her mother sat there silent. I confirmed that Angela (not her real name)…
Why Do Religious Teens Have Unprotected Sex?
Why do religious teens have unprotected sex? Parents, teachers, pastors, and more would love to know. Ask the average teenager…
Don’t Let Premenstrual Syndrome Drive You Crazy
For some women, the 35 years between age 15 and 50 are a monthly nightmare. And anyone who cares about…
When You Dread the Holidays
I have a friend who dreads this time of year. Come each November 15, he wishes he could fast-forward to January 2. The stress, the rush, the shopping, the expectations – he hates it all. And most of all, he hates being lonely.
There are a number of reasons why you might not look forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s. Holidays make our normal vulnerabilities more apparent.
If that’s you, there’s one important thing you must do this holiday season.
What It Means To Be A Man
I’m a woman, and I’m talking to men about men. Sure, that’s a little dangerous, but here’s my perspective.
Men have challenges to face that our modern society perhaps makes even harder. Today’s jobs and today’s families often give men the message that they are unnecessary. And perhaps the church can be especially faulted for making a goal out of becoming a “Mr Nice Guy!”
But I believe that God created men the way they are on purpose.
“God Is Your Father” – Good News or Bad?
If you’ve gone to church or read the Bible you’ve surely heard that God is your Father. You’re supposed to feel safe and secure knowing that. The thought of God as your Father is supposed to make you want to run into His arms with joy, knowing He will handle all your problems.
But does it really make you feel that way?
Doctor, Doctor: Your Family of Origin
You can’t choose your parents. Or your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins. If your family of origin was reasonably healthy you probably don’t think much about how you choose to relate to them.
But not all families are so healthy. It seems some significant measure of dysfunction is the norm in most families. Where you come from affects you.
It’s Not Just About Me
“I’m not hurting anyone but myself.” “It’s a victim-less crime.” “It doesn’t matter what I do: nobody cares.” On the…
