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Love Like That Archives - Page 2 of 3 - SYMBIS Assessment

The Best Gift You Can Give This Christmas

By Intimacy, Marriage, Relationships One Comment

It’s not unusual to experience the familiar push-and-pull between holiday gift-giving and the higher purpose of the Christmas season. Exchanging gifts with family and loved ones is the highlight of Christmas for many, and that’s wonderful–gifts bring joy to both the giver and the receiver. However, a seasonal gift exchange is fleeting, and we’re back to our regular lives before we know it. But what if we gave a gift this Christmas that was permanent? So many of us recognize that Jesus is the true reason for the holiday we love so dearly. But we don’t always keep that in…

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4 Ways to Help Your Spouse Trust You Again

By Conflict, Marriage 2 Comments

Have you ever damaged or broken your spouse’s trust in you? Earning that trust back takes hard work and patience on both your parts. The good news is, in many situations, it’s possible to earn their trust again. First, you’re probably already aware that your actions have had a grievous impact on your spouse and their sense of wellbeing. Second, we understand that it’s painful to learn you’ve hurt the person you love most. This may be one of the most painful situations you ever walk through together. Easing back into a trusting relationship with your spouse takes commitment, time,…

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The Importance of Forgiveness & Resilience in Marriage

By Conflict, Marriage, Relationships One Comment

It’s common for married couples to have high expectations of one another. But, it’s also common for those expectations to be unmet. Unmet expectations can result in anger, sadness, and resentment, all of which put a strain on your marriage. In order to overcome unmet expectations and conflicts that emerge over the course of your relationship, you and your spouse must be both resilient and willing to extend forgiveness. Forgiveness is an essential part of all healthy relationships, and resilience helps us bounce back from hard times. In order to come back from conflict stronger than before, forgiveness is an…

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How to Prioritize Christlike Love During Difficult Times

By Marriage One Comment

Loving like Jesus is important at all times, but when you’re experiencing a challenging season, Christlike love becomes absolutely critical. In order to keep Christlike love a top priority, you must practice it intentionally on a daily basis. Christlike love transcends all–hard times, interpersonal conflict, joy, and loss. Whatever you and your spouse are facing right now, you can make it to the other side through Jesus’s love. Let’s look at a few ways we can all prioritize Christlike love during hard times. 1. Pay careful attention to your spouse’s needs. When times are tough, you and your spouse may…

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3 Ways to Make Loving Like Jesus a Habit

By Self Reflection 2 Comments

“We are what we repeatedly do.” – Aristotle Not only in marriage, but in life, we need to love like Jesus did. Loving like Jesus allows us to step into all seasons and circumstances with the ability to love with mindfulness, approachability, grace, boldness, and selflessness. If we want to love like that automatically, we have to make it a habit. Although we as humans are not perfect and can’t expect to be, we can cultivate the habit of actively loving like Jesus. It takes time and intentionality, but it can be done–and your relationships will reap its rewards. Let’s…

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Approachability: The Key to Emotional Safety in Marriage

By Marriage, Relationships 4 Comments

One of the most loving things you can do in your marriage is to make yourself radically approachable to your spouse. When you’re approachable, you’re open, welcoming, and receptive–and most importantly, your spouse feels safe with you. Your approachability makes others feel like they belong when they’re near you. It makes them feel wanted and included. Making your spouse feel as though he or she belongs with you is one of the most selfless things you can do for them. A behavior modeled by Jesus Approachability was both a behavior and a persona that was modeled by Jesus in Biblical…

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Speaking Your Truth: How to Become More Bold

By Scripture, Self Reflection 6 Comments

“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests…” – Luke 6:26 We’ve all been there. You are deep in a conversation with peers or loved ones and a certain topic comes up. While you listen to the person speaking you find that you’re lost, or perhaps you disagree. You smile and nod, and look around to see how everyone else is processing it. Will you seem ignorant if you ask a question? Or worse, speak up and have no one else agree…

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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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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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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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