Marriage and Family Blog

Understand What Your Spouse Is Not Saying

April 14, 2015

If you’ve read my blog, you know I caution spouses about trying to read each other’s mind. But then my wife took me away for a few days on a surprise trip to North Carolina. (That’s right! She made the plans, told me what to pack, and then said, “Drive.” It was wonderful! I owe […]

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Little Things Mean A Lot – Honesty

March 31, 2015

Does the following exchange sound familiar to you? (Please say it doesn’t just happen in my marriage!) Spouse  1: “Where do you want to eat?” Spouse 2: “I don’t care. We can go anywhere.”

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Are Your Dogs Out?

March 26, 2015

I walk most every morning in my neighborhood. It’s a great time for me to think, listen to music, pray, and make plans for my day. I’ve done this for years and have never had any problems with dogs. But over the last couple of years, I’ve started having “encounters” with dogs in the neighborhood. More […]

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What’s A Good Marriage Look Like?

March 24, 2015

What’s a good marriage look like? Even if we don’t ask this question out loud, we all wonder what a good marriage really looks like. Maybe you have your own ideas about what a good marriage looks like. When you think about a good marriage, maybe you picture a husband and wife…

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Marriage Is Like Baseball

March 17, 2015

I often tell couples that marriage is like baseball. The key is knowing which pitches to swing at and which pitches to let go by. Others have said the key to marriage is figuring out which hills are too small to die on. However you describe it, there are times in marriage when you have to determine…is […]

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Are You Listening To Me?

March 10, 2015

Have you ever been in a conversation with your spouse and you zoned out, only to wake up to these words, “Are you listening to me?” Or maybe you were in a heated discussion where you were graciously sharing the benefit of your knowledge with your spouse, only to have them interrupt you and say, “Are […]

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Dissatisfaction in Marriage

March 3, 2015

To be married is to know dissatisfaction. That statement will probably get me in trouble, but it’s true. You can’t live with someone who is different than you and not experience some dissatisfaction. Your spouse won’t make the same decisions you would make. They will correct you at times. Their priorities will be different than […]

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Remember Why You’re Married

February 24, 2015

Unless you’re a newlywed, you know how easy it is to let the demands, stresses, and frustrations of life crowd out the things that brought you together in the first place. It’s subtle at first, but eventually these things can take a marriage to dull distance at best and disappointing finality at worst. But there’s something […]

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The Valentines Day That Never Was

February 17, 2015

Valentines Day is over. But for my wife and me, it it was the Valentines Day that never was. More on that in a minute. Reactions to Valentines day can be mixed and varied. Some look forward to the special attention. Some dread the pressure of trying to come up with something special. Some look forward […]

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Little Things

February 10, 2015

Every so often, I run a post on Normal Marriage that starts with these words…”Little things mean a lot.” I do this because it’s really easy to focus on the big things in marriage (communication, conflict, sex, etc.) and forget that the little things are just as important…if not more so.

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