Month: March 2017

Quality Time Love Language Challenge

Introducing our quality time love experiment for the month- connecting with your spouse for 10 minutes at the end of every day. Alright, it’s almost April and that means its time to introduce our Marriage Laboratory Experiment of the Month (MLEM if you like- you can remember it because it sounds like phlem)! This year all our experiments are based on Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages book and February will be all about . .. . . . QUALITY TIME! Here’s the experiment explained scientific method style: PROBLEM: We’re so BUSY! We forget to prioritize our most important relationship. Our… Read More

Setting Boundaries in Marriage: What Does that Look Like?

Setting healthy boundaries in marriage? How do you do that? What does that feel like? Click through to read more.

What does setting healthy boundaries in marriage look like? We’re often good at getting mad or resentfully accommodating, but usually not so good at setting healthy boundaries. Boundaries. That is a topic I’ve never really addressed on the blog because in all honesty I don’t really know how to think about them. Oh I know how to lay down my desires to get what I want, but I’ve never really had a firm grasp on what setting healthy boundaries looks like exactly. That is, until I’ve spent a lot of time researching it for my upcoming book about mixed-faith marriages (sign… Read More

Spiritual Sunday: Is God Mad at Me?

Is God Mad at Me?

In our church we talk a lot about obedience. This is for good reason, but I think being so obedience-focused comes with certain risks. One of these risks is that we misunderstand the reason behind obedience. Not understanding the reason behind rules will make anyone resentful, annoyed and reluctant toward the rules. As any parent can tell you, if you order a child to do something (“Don’t touch that! Clean your room!”) without making sure the child understands the why, what you get is an annoyed, reluctant child. Or a child who only obeys to appease and avoid punishment. But… Read More

The Myth Behind Communication Issues in Marriage

When couples suffer from communication issues, communication usually isn’t the main issue. The solution is far more difficult- to dig deep and become more emotionally mature people. This post contains affiliate links. Whenever people subscribe to my email list, a “thank you” email goes out to them and in that email I ask people to tell me something they are struggling with in their marriage right now. Often, I get my post ideas from these emails. Also, I’ve run several surveys through the years asking for people’s marriage struggles. In these emails and replies, I’d say a solid 75% of… Read More

February Love Experiment Recap: Words of Affirmation

What would happen if you sent your partner a love note everyday for a month? Try an experiment and see! Click through to read more.

What happens if you send a loving note or text full of words of affirmation to your spouse everyday for a month? Good things friends. Good things. So we’re done with our February love experiment which to send a nice text, email or note to your spouse everyday. This challenge was based on Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages book, specifically the words of affirmation love language. Time for a re-cap! Confession- the first half of the month went WAY better than the second half. For the first half of the month I was doing the 14 Days of Love Letters… Read More