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Earning a Time Out
Marriage requires serious accountability to each other in order to last. This is why we are wary of advice to spend time away from each other as if that alone will improve our relationship. Perfectly valid solo activities can be chosen for the wrong reasons, particularly when the reason is avoiding my spouse.
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Listen, Linda!!! Active Listening In Marriage
Did you ever watch the viral YouTube video called Listen, Linda? (Watch video) It’s pretty funny, but also good food for thought. Really, what we all want is to be heard and understood, which is part of being loved. But this is sometimes easier said than done. Easily Distracted & Uninclined: My Default Setting KEN: I’m easily distracted and not inclined to listen to things that don’t interest me. This naturally creates a challenge for good communication in our marriage. JANINE: I like quiet time at home. When I’m chipping away at my to-do list, or even when I’m doing dishes, I like to spend time with my own thoughts…
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We Are In Our Netflix Era
Chris♥️Michelle: Recently, we were talking to some friends about staying relevant in today’s world. They made the comparison of Blockbuster and Netflix. Blockbuster was great, back in the day, but where are they now? We imagine that their late fees, out-of-stock favorites and resistance to change is why they’re no longer around. Compare this to Netflix. When they started, they were a mail order DVD rental company. Now, they are an always evolving web-based giant! We thought about a similar comparison with our marriage. Shift from Transaction to Subscription • Blockbuster Way: every interaction was a transaction and if you’re late, there’s a penalty. I do this when I say…
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Playing Games
“You sunk my battleship!” was a TV ad tagline we used to hear about a popular game when we were younger. So many memories were about fun games we would play. But in our marriage, playing games can be dangerous.
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In Sickness and In Health
Matt: When we got married, like many who may be reading this, we recited a vow of commitment and faithfulness to each other. And it is also a safe bet that all our vows included something like “For richer or poorer” and “In sickness and in health.” Trust us when we say that we could fill more space than we have here on the “for richer or poorer” topic and likely will try to tackle that one later. But today we are going to explore what “in sickness and in health” means to us, especially lately. Gail: On our wedding day, when I uttered the words “I take you Matt,…
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Family Ties
Julie: We’ve just had the privilege of living in the funny, dramatic, wildly unpredictable world of our 13-year-old twin nieces as we took them camping with us. We’ve taken them for a weekend each year so that John’s sister and our brother-in-law can have time to reconnect and focus on just them (plus it’s fun for us!). It’s something we look forward to and that has helped strengthen our family ties not only with our nieces, but also our siblings.
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Happy 250th birthday, America!
Have a safe and fun celebration – from The Couples Post Family to yours.
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What’s Your Spouse’s Love Language?
Is The 5 Love Languages outdated? Not a chance. See how this practical tool is still saving, changing, and boosting marriages today—plus, resources to find your own language.
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Sacrificing vs. Generosity in Marriage: A Paradigm Shift
Sacrificing in marriage can lead to resentment. A paradigm shift to reciprocal acts of generosity can help to heal resentment.
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The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts
Matt We’ve all heard that classic, Aristotle quote: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” While it may be deeply philosophical, it is also the absolute best way to describe the hilarious, chaotic reality of living with another human being. Gail When you get married, you stop being two independent, functioning adults. Instead, you merge into a singular, bizarre ecosystem where the final product is entirely different from the individual ingredients. Here is what happens when two parts become a “whole” – and why the math makes absolutely no sense. Before we combined forces, we were perfectly rational, capable single people. Let’s look at each of us…
