Marriage

If you become obsessed with your longing to feel loved, you will become more preoccupied with self-satisfaction than with building a happy relationship.

Is your marriage not as close as it once was? Even spiritually strong marriages can fall into quiet patterns that pull couples apart. Here’s how to spot them early and grow closer again.

How can we reclaim marriage, fatherhood, and godly leadership from a culture that’s distorting them?

Even though the average guy isn’t making it his mission to hurt his wife, he can unintentionally leave her feeling rejected, unseen, devalued—and ugly—without ever saying a thing.

No matter how emotionally distant the two of you might feel from each other right now, you can narrow the gap and connect with each other once again. Here are 7 ways to reconnect with your spouse.

This is why you need to hear, for yourself, what the Almighty decrees about your situation... Take His word over your family’s or even your husband’s behavior.

I would venture to guess that most married couples can identify with escape, business meeting and maintenance dates in their relationship. But it is essential to be intentional about creating romantic memories, too. 

Marriage is a wonderful relationship experience. But to be married well requires more than most of us imagine when standing at the altar. We are wise to invest all we can in the health of our marriage. A piece of that nurturing is “weeding the garden” of our relationship. The enemy can come in so small and unassuming, the same way a weed sprouts up next to a seedling. If we don’t tend the weeds, they end up larger than all we’ve planted and then choke out the good plants, so they can’t bear fruit. 

Nothing can compare to God-centered marriage. Nothing can withstand the storms like a relationship rooted in His promises, principles, and attributes. Does this take work? An immense amount of work! A lazy marriage is destined to fail.

Do you sometimes find it hard to be honest with God regarding the fertility problems you face? I know that I do at times. Perhaps sometimes it just feels easier to give God my best spiritual performance by telling him what I think he wants to hear instead. Perhaps a part of me still thinks my healing is based on my goodness or how well I weather the challenge.

So let us all — women, as well as men — strive to be like the wife of noble character described in Proverbs 31. Let us all work to be selfless, hardworking, compassionate, virtuous, strong, and kind.

It’s hard enough to create financial stability when we’re on the same page, but what happens when our philosophies concerning finances are completely different?

Start with giving thanks to God for your spouse. Then, allow Him to stir in your heart for ways to speak words that will resonate and express gratitude that will speak volumes. Try sharing one simple form of gratitude daily for a week and watch what may happen. A simple word of thanks could mean more than you know, turning some of those daily responsibilities they may see as a burden into a smile, realizing that it has been a blessing to you.

God has much to say in the Bible about how he wants us to make marriage last forever and the marriage relationship.

Another seemingly positive trend that infringes on our personal time with the Lord is the art of “shared” quiet time when spouses take time to pray and read the Word together. Of course, praying together is vital in maintaining a healthy marriage (less than .006 of marriages end in divorce when spouses regularly pray together), but no spiritual activity or shared experience should ever replace personal time with the Lord.

Financial abuse is a means of making sure the victim will always stay because they don’t have access to funds in order to leave. It does not discriminate and can happen to people who have been married a long time, as well as those in brand new marriages.

My husband hugged me and told me to go and seek rest. As I write this, he is currently taking care of the children for the weekend. He is handling all the housework, the chores, and the responsibilities. And he is essentially taking care of me.

God hates divorce is not the end of this divorce discussion. It doesn’t give us enough information or any context behind why God is saying this.

In our flesh, our focus is usually on ourselves, on our own desires, comforts, and fears. It's not surprising, then, that we look forward to Heaven because we want to see loved ones who have gone before us. Or that we look to eternity with uncertainty because of our lack of understanding and fear of the unknown.

Chances are that the disillusionment and loneliness you feel stem from both of you taking your relationship for granted. Be intentional about nurturing your marriage. Spend more time together (away from the kids), indulge in shared interests, communicate clearly, limit screen time, go to bed at the same time and get intimate more often.