Jan 09
Love10

Why Celebrating Your Spouse is Important: Part 1

By Communication 11 Comments

“There is no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day.” – Alexander Woolcott Have you ever felt like a part of you was imprisoned or undiscovered in your marriage? Or perhaps your spouse isn’t recognizing all parts of you? And on the contrary – maybe you aren’t recognizing your spouse? Researchers often refer to couples who “sculpt” each other. Both positive and negative moments can take an effect on your relationship by reinforcing patterns both good and bad. This “sculpting” can either reveal more of your partner by celebrating who they are, or if you are negative (or…

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Jan 02
Love3

How to Listen With The Third Ear

By Communication 12 Comments

The first duty of love in any relationship is to listen. When we are heard we feel known, loved and understood. Listening is an essential ingredient in good communication. But in order to be a good listener, you need to learn how to listen with the third ear. By doing this, you don’t just listen to the actual words that are spoken, you learn to feel the emotions that flow within the conversation as well. So how can you learn to listen with the third ear? Tune in to the message beneath the words If you can hear, you can…

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Dec 26
Love4

How to Battle Busyness and Win

By Time 2 Comments

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. -Benjamin Franklin We’ve all been in a situation where we do something we don’t necessarily want to do. Imagine it’s a Sunday afternoon and you plan on relaxing and recharging. The phone rings and you pick it up – agitated at the person who called you. If you don’t want to talk, then why answer? Just because the phone is ringing, doesn’t mean you have to respond. This is the key. We are in control with what we do with our time….

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Dec 19
Love0

Spender or Saver? How to Compromise With Your Spouse This Holiday Season

By Communication, Conflict 3 Comments

Holiday season is upon us and gift giving is in full swing. But what happens when you and your spouse disagree on how much is too much? Perhaps you’d like to give your kids or a loved one a gift that your spouse finds is over the top. Or vise-versa, your spouse prefers to spend but you prefer you stick to a strict budget. Everyone expresses love in their own unique way, and for some people gift giving is the best way they know how to give and receive love. In fact, did you know that most relationships have a…

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Dec 12
Love4

3 Ways to Make Loving Like Jesus a Habit

By Scripture, Self Reflection No Comments

Let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality – Jesus Over the past few months, we’ve talked about ways to love more like Jesus did. But how do we turn these actions into a habit? There’s a difference between deciding and actually doing, and in order to make loving like Jesus a habit we need to cultivate the discipline to actually do it. In other words, the key to loving like Jesus should be more than a decision, the key is to make it…

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Dec 05
Love1

Planning Your Wedding Part 3: Constructively Resolving Conflict

By Communication, Conflict, In-laws & Family 7 Comments

It’s common for family members to clash with the engaged couple (or one another) during a busy season of wedding planning. Weddings seem to provide endless opportunities for families to squabble about traditions, decor, music, and other minutiae down to the smallest details. Unfortunately, family members do this to the detriment of peace, and the bride and groom’s happiness. Last week in part 2, we talked about the importance of boundaries–and how having strong boundaries can make your wedding planning process more enjoyable. But even with the healthiest of boundaries in place, conflict can still arise. It’s incredibly uncomfortable and…

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Nov 28
Love4

Planning Your Wedding Part 2: Establishing Healthy Boundaries with Family

By Communication, In-laws & Family 2 Comments

Boundaries are critically important in marriage. They protect you as a couple from negative outside influences, helping you to strengthen and maintain a healthy relationship from within. If you don’t have boundaries yet, you need to have a discussion with your fiance about what those boundaries need to entail. The wedding planning season isn’t the easiest time to enact boundaries, but if you don’t already have them as a couple, it’s a good time to establish them. That’s because planning your wedding is one of your first big opportunities to exercise boundaries. While the two of you attempt to plan…

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Nov 21
Love3

Planning Your Wedding Part 1: Working Together to Plan Your Big Day

By Communication, In-laws & Family, Time No Comments

Wedding planning is one of the busiest seasons in your life. (We remember; it was a busy time for us, too!) While it tends to be stressful and time-consuming, there are ways to enjoy yourselves and alleviate some of the pressure that can come along with planning for one of the most important days of your life. Planning your wedding together can make this season fun and memorable. Even better, it gives you a chance to infuse the essence of who you are as a couple into every part of your celebration. Here are a few ways you can plan…

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Nov 14
Love1

4 Ways to Be a Better Truth-Teller: Part 2

By Communication No Comments

“When in doubt, tell the truth.” – Mark Twain In part one of this series based on my new book, Love Like That, we talked about how truly loving like Jesus requires us to stop fearing vulnerability and start being willing to risk rejection. To that end, we must… 3. Care less about what others think You won’t successfully achieve vulnerability, authenticity, and truth if you’re too concerned about what people think of you. Jesus held such powerful convictions that when he spoke out against injustice or hypocrisy, he couldn’t care less what others thought of him. He didn’t dwell…

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Nov 07
Love9

4 Ways to Be a Better Truth-Teller: Part 1

By Scripture, Self Reflection One Comment

“Peace if possible, truth at all costs.” – Martin Luther Part of loving like Jesus is being truthful. Jesus had a way of being relentlessly honest, while still extending tenderness and grace toward those he came in contact with. He was completely authentic, and expected the same of others. But radical honesty isn’t so easy for most of us. In fact, we’re often more content to remain–at least, in part–unseen and unheard in favor of avoiding the difficulties that can come with complete honesty. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we understand that real love can’t fully manifest without complete…

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