Category

Marriage

Sep 15
Love0

How to Give Your Marriage an Attitude Adjustment

By Marriage No Comments

The attitudes you and your spouse hold toward different circumstances will affect your marriage in a myriad of ways. Good, bad, or clashing attitudes set the stage for how you’ll work together to tackle a problem–or not. That’s why it becomes essential to give your marriage an attitude adjustment from time to time. It’s a good idea to check in on your attitudes from time to time, and from one situation to the next. The way you look at and approach challenges is largely defined by your attitude toward them. If you want to succeed as a couple, then you’ll…

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Aug 11
Love0

What You Need to Know About Everyday Problems in Marriage

By Conflict, Marriage 3 Comments

Every couple experiences problems in their marriage, and those issues seem to be universally common. If you could be a fly on the wall in our office during the counseling sessions we’ve held over the years, you would hear many similar stories and scenarios repeating themselves among a host of different couples. While the individual features of each scenario are unique, many of the issues come down to the same core problems. Once the honeymoon phase of a marriage has passed, many couples are perplexed when issues and disappointments begin to take root. Building a happy, lifelong marriage takes work,…

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Aug 04
Love0

The Top 5 Conflicts Every Married Couple Faces

By Conflict, Marriage No Comments

Sooner or later, every married couple fights. However, there are some conflicts that are guaranteed to come up between spouses at some point in your relationship. In our experience, the top 5 conflicts every married couple faces are incredibly common and can cause a lot of tension in relationships when left unresolved. Wondering what those common conflicts are? Let’s dive right in. 1. Finances Money is one of the most common issues married couples fight about. Whether you’re talking about spending styles, how much is in your savings account, how much you should spend on vacations and holidays, or even…

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Jul 28
Love0

How to Protect Yourself and Your Relationships With Family Boundaries

By In-laws & Family, Marriage No Comments

Our families of origin have an immense impact on who we become as adults, and on our relationships. Whether friendships or romantic relationships, family imprints onto our personalities and our behavior patterns. If we aren’t able to recognize those influences and set boundaries, then our relationships could suffer. While it’s a good idea to set boundaries regarding what behaviors you will and won’t accept from family members, you also need boundaries to protect yourself from the unspoken behavior patterns you picked up from childhood. Let’s look at a few ways your family can influence you, and what to do about…

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Jul 21
Love0

How to Embrace Your Complete Self Before You Marry

By Marriage, Relationships, Self Reflection 3 Comments

“If I could just find the right person to marry, then my life would be complete.” Does that sound familiar to you? Our society sells the idea that a marriage relationship can not only complete you as a person; it can fix your entire life. It’s a fallacy that runs deep and is woven into the fabric of our culture. By chasing the idea of wholeness through relationships, we neglect to establish a whole relationship with ourselves first. And the problem is, when we don’t learn to embrace our complete selves, we spend our lives chasing wholeness through our relationships…

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Jul 14
Love0

Emotional Safety in Marriage: Why Does it Matter?

By Intimacy, Marriage One Comment

Emotional safety is a critical component of any fulfilling marriage. In order for spouses to be able to be truly vulnerable, open, and honest with one another, emotional safety must exist in the relationship. If a couple does not deliberately make emotional safety a part of their relationship, it will become difficult to overcome obstacles and grow closer to one another over time. In short, emotional safety allows us to fully be ourselves, and it’s required if we want to experience all the blessings marriage has to offer. There are several factors that are needed in an emotionally safe marriage,…

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Jul 07
Love0

3 Things You Need to Know About the First Year of Marriage

By Engagement, Marriage One Comment

Are you prepared for your first year of marriage? Living in the thick of it right now? The first year of marriage is often described as a difficult time in a couple’s life, and for many, that’s true. The good news is, there are some things you and your partner can do to pave the way toward a happy first year of marriage (and beyond). Here are three things you need to know about your first year of marriage. 1. Cultivating friendship and sacrificial love should be at the top of your priority list. Building a lasting and fulfilling marriage…

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Jun 16
Love0

5 Reasons to Enjoy More Meals With Your Spouse

By Marriage, Time No Comments

When it comes to nurturing a happy, healthy, lifelong marriage, spending time with one another must be a non-negotiable priority. In the absence of dedicated time, marriages suffer and families drift apart. One way to encourage more togetherness between spouses and among families is to enjoy more meals with one another. Meal time equals together time. And in a time-starved world, it’s crucial to take hold of every opportunity to spend that valuable time together. While it’s all too easy for the busyness of life to take over, there are many reasons why dedicating more time to meals is a…

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Jun 09
Love0

How to Grow Together In Your Marriage

By Marriage One Comment

Growth is something we all experience as we go through the seasons of our lives. It’s not unusual to hear married couples talk about how they have changed and evolved as individuals over the years. Allowing ourselves to grow and change as people, in turn, can enrich our marriages. Healthy growth generally involves becoming more mature adults with greater wisdom and life experience. Our growth helps us to step confidently into each phase of life, with valuable lessons we’ve learned in the past. Growing throughout our lives also gives us the chance to impart those lessons to younger generations, including…

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May 26
Love0

Why Personality Makes Every Marriage Unique

By Marriage, Relationships One Comment

In marriage as in life, our personalities come through in our behaviors. By observing how someone behaves, we can get a fairly accurate idea of what their personality is like. Our behaviors are particularly revealing in marriage, when we spend a lot of time together, one-on-one. What’s interesting, though, is that spouses don’t always accurately perceive one another’s personalities, despite the amount of time they spend with each other. Much of our personality plays itself out internally, in ways our spouse will never see. That’s why relationship assessments such as SYMBIS are so incredibly useful in counseling couples. SYMBIS results…

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