Marriage
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A Bad Marriage is Overlaid with Good Intentions
Okay, so the title of this post isn’t as catchy as “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” but it gets the point across. It is easy for a marriage to have a shiny exterior, where everyone on the outside thinks things are just fine. Under the smiles, though, there is rottenness and bitterness at every turn. Your marriage may not be that negative, but it could be headed that way. How? Too often we can talk about what we “intend” to do with our spouse, but we don’t do it. All those intentions, without action, could be rotting the inner strength of the relationship. Now, I’m not…
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How Leaving Things Unattended Can Kill Your Marriage
Her name was Sunandha Kumariratana. Due to a bit of an oddity in the law at the time, she was one of the queens of what was then called Siam. On May 31, 1880 she died at the tender age of 19. Her young age makes this tragic, as does her royalty. But what made her death even more tragic was that there were witnesses. No, it was not an execution or even a situation where people just could not get to her in time. Instead, on a boat trip to the royal summer palace, the boat capsized and two members of the royal family died, including Queen Sunandha. The…
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6 Ways to Keep Facebook from Harming Your Marriage
As we wrote about recently, I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I’m glad I restarted my account, as it is much easier to manage. I have noticed, though, a massive drop-off in the amount of traffic to our blog since the restart, but that’s okay. Facebook is a great tool, but far too many people (mis)use it in ways that are harming their homes. It has been reported recently that fully 33% of all divorces mention Facebook somewhere in the divorce filings. Certainly, there are ways to enjoy the good uses of Facebook without it leading to divorce, but it can be very easy to be trapped in a…
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Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, and “Conscious Uncoupling”
On the online celebrity newsletter Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin recently announced that their marriage was ending. That might not be too surprising, considering how often we hear of weddings and separations among the celebrity world. The way in which their split was announced, however, has raised some eyebrows. You see, they aren’t calling it a “divorce.” Instead, it is being called a “Conscious Uncoupling.” On the Goop newsletter, Paltrow and Martin provided a short statement to fans about this “conscious uncoupling,” and provided fans with some words of thanks. Following that, however, there was a rather lengthy essay by Drs. Habib Sadeghi and Sherry Sami about the concept…
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Slow Down and Cherish the Moments
In Jeff Goins’s book The In-Between, he tells this short story that really struck me upon reading it recently: The other day, I went outside to sit on my back porch, leaving my phone in the house. As I rocked my son to sleep, I looked to my left and saw a huge cumulus cloud growing in the sky. Every second as I watched, it grew, marshmallowing into a great, big cotton ball in the sky. My first inclination was to run inside, grab my phone, and snap a photo. To capture the memory and share it with friends. But some internal urge prevented me from doing so. Resisting the compulsion…
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“Before Your Kids Eyes” : 6 Things Your Kids Need to See You Do Daily
Children learn in every possible way. From the smallest of ages, they are soaking up information from those they love. (Don’t believe me? Take 61 seconds and watch this video from a recent college basketball game.) As they grow, they learn to read, and they take in information from the media, from books, and from peers. But kids will continue to take in information from their parents. Kids really get their worldview from how mom and dad act daily. Knowing that, I challenge every mom and dad to think about what your kids are seeing from you toward each other. I’m not asking you to be hypocritical, but you know…
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The Power of Real Conversation
A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study. –Chinese Proverb Our family is making a strong effort to have more people in our home this year. Often, we have people over for a meal, but it is the conversation that is what really “makes” the evening. Just as one example, we had two ladies over last week for a meal of soup and salad. It wasn’t anything fancy, and we just used our regular plates and bowls. After the meal, though, these two sweet ladies sat and talked with Leah and I for over an hour. We talked about issues related to the Church,…
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The Importance of the Family Table
If there is one word to describe our culture, it’s probably “busy.” Our schedules are packed from morning to night, and for those of us who are Christians, we would say that the activities of the day are important. This post is not written to question whether we are doing good things. But I do want to ask one question: how often does your family gather around your table and eat together? The family table is so important, and our nation has basically forgotten it. Think of a typical house on a typical evening. A regular, middle-class house probably has a dining room, but we consider it a “formal” room,…
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Your Calendar and Your Family
Your calendar says a lot about you. I’ve heard it said that, you can look at someone’s checkbook register (now, I guess that would be their online bank statement) and their calendar and have a good indication of their priorities and goals. It’s hard to say if that’s 100% true or not, but it certainly is a decent indication So, today’s post asks a really simply question: does your calendar show that your family is a priority? How often have you found yourself saying, “We just don’t have time to go on a date anymore?” Have you put it on the calendar? “We would do a family devotional, but there’s…
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Why Wait for Valentine’s Day?
Valentine’s Day is Friday. (Husbands, read that sentence again!) Leah and I have never made a huge deal of the holiday, but we always go out on a date and enjoy some time with the kids. We don’t buy extravagant gifts, but I do still ask her to be my valentine. Of course, now Turner asks her, too, so I have some competition! I hope you are planning something special for the day, but I’d like to ask: why wait until Friday? Why wait until Valentine’s Day? You don’t have to wait to tell your husband or wife “I love you.” You don’t have to wait to get a little…
