Communication

All of us, at some point, go through times in our marriages when we find it difficult to create the meaningful conversations that keep intimacy alive. Here you will find 11 questions you can ask your husband or wife on date nights, on road trips, and during tough times that will initiate deeper communication in your relationship. When using questions like these as conversation starters, remember to keep the questions open-ended (don’t ask anything that will elicit only a “yes” or “no” answer), and always follow up. After your spouse has shared his or her thoughts, engage and share your…

It helps to have good communication skills boiled down to the basics, but knowing what we should being doing and actually doing it are two different stories. Do you have any tips on putting these skills into practice? This may sound strange, but we have discovered that talking about good communication is often easier than practicing it. Too often, we understand what to do but for a variety of reasons — we’re distracted, feeling stressed out, or simply forgetting what to do — we don’t do it. Even the experts sometimes have difficulty following their own advice. After years of…

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21 “The traffic on Westlake is crazy,” Leslie told me. “They’re doing some construction as you near Mercer Avenue. So beware.” I was driving to meet Leslie across town, and she’d just passed through the same streets where I was starting to travel. “Thanks for the heads up.” Did this little bit of info matter? Surprisingly, yes! I didn’t get uptight wondering what was happening. Instead, I took a round about way and felt like I’d performed a magic trick. It’s amazing what…

Say nothing evil or hurtful;
 Snub evil and cultivate good;
 run after peace for all you’re worth. I Peter 3:9 Did you know that communication is the very lifeblood of your relationship? And yet it is the number one complaint most couples have about their relationship. “We just don’t communicate,” is a common refrain in many counselors’ offices. Or “We never have time just to talk” is one we hear a lot. But the one that makes us cringe the most is “When we finally find the time to talk, we don’t have anything to say.” Whether a relationship sinks…

Though you lie down among the sheepfolds, you will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. Psalm 68:13 At one time Andrew Carnegie was the wealthiest man in America. He came to America from his native Scotland when he was a small boy, did a variety of odd jobs, and eventually ended up as the largest steel manufacturer in the United States. At one time he had forty-three millionaires working for him. In those days a millionaire was a rare person. Conservatively speaking, a million dollars in his day would be…