Is Your Schedule Ruining Your Marriage?

"We know from experience how hectic and busy schedules can not only put a strain on your physical and emotional state, but it can also stress your marriage and your partner".....

https://tonightsbettertogether.com/2016/04/03/10-ways-to-cope-with-busy-schedules-in-marriage/

The Do's and Don'ts of an Argument with Your Spouse

"Communication is about much more than just the words we use. There’s the tone and volume when we speak, and then there’s the unspoken criticism we can give by the things we do. In fact, failing to recognize the importance of good body language has been identified as one of 4 Easy Mistakes People Make in Marriage. Here are six things not to do and to do the next time you find yourself arguing about something with your spouse".....

http://www.markmerrill.com/the-dos-and-donts-when-arguing-with-your-spouse/

Protect Yourself from a Workplace Affair

"Nobody starts their marriage intending to have an affair. Yet 50% of all married couples in the United States experience an affair during their lifetime. But here’s the shocker… 85% of those affairs begin at work.".....

http://startupcamp.com/protect-workplace-affair/

How do I know he's "the one"?

"Q: Is there one person I’m meant to marry, or should I just choose a good man?

A: This question isn’t simply a contemplative exercise; it impacts how you approach dating and marriage. However, I think it is the wrong question to be asking".....

https://homeword.com/jims-blog/how-do-i-know-hes-the-one-3-questions-to-consider/#.WjfcmN-nGUk

When is my spouse going to change?!

"Instead of trying to change your partner, be the change you wish to see in your relationship".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/be-the-change-you-wish-to-see-in-your-relationship/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Marriage%20Minute%2097%20-%20Dont%20be%20so%20hard%20on%20yourself&utm_content=Marriage%20Minute%2097%20-%20Dont%20be%20so%20hard%20on%20yourself+CID_2603f70b09e130214f42510732f18d29&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=e%20the%20Change%20You%20Wish%20to%20See%20in%20Your%20Relationship

Why is it so hard to pray with my spouse?

"Admit it. You’d like to be one of those couples that prays together daily, conducts family devotions regularly, and models to others what a spiritual home should look like. But if you’re like us – and most couples we’ve talked to – you’re not quite there.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t ever be".....

https://www.crosswalk.com/home-page/todays-features/why-is-it-so-hard-to-pray-with-my-spouse.html

2 Biases that May Be Hurting Your Marriage

"We all make mistakes when judging situations or people, and biases influence many of our conclusions. Failing to recognize and manage these biases can keep an unhappy marriage in the dark".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/2-biases-may-hurting-relationship/?utm_source=Marriage+Minute&utm_campaign=821ad8edf4-MM_12122017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56abe07ac5-821ad8edf4-135378537

Money Can Mess Up a Marriage

"Are you arguing with your spouse about money? You’re not alone.

According to a study by TD Bank, 63% of couples think their significant other overspends in some way. You know that’s fertile ground for arguments to happen".....

https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/the-truth-about-money-and-relationships

The Grass is Greener Where You Water It

"Couples that trust each other understand that a good marriage doesn’t just happen on its own. It needs to be cultivated".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-grass-is-greener-where-you-water-it/?utm_source=Marriage+Minute&utm_campaign=87e6e66770-MM_12072017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56abe07ac5-87e6e66770-135378537

7 Common Double Standards in Marriage

"Each one expected the other to uphold standards that they broke a moment later. Such attitudes can attack the foundation of even the strongest marriages. Here are 7 common double standards in marriage and ways to avoid them".....

http://www.allprodad.com/7-common-double-standards-in-marriage/

Don't Let Stress Hijack Your Marriage

"Stressors experienced outside the relationship by one or both partners can cause distress in the relationship. High levels of stress from outside sources often interfere with a couple’s ability to communicate effectively, connect emotionally, and manage conflict in their relationship".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/rescuing-relationship-stress/

Don't Let the Holidays Stress Out Your Marriage

"When the busyness of the season threatens to drag our spirits down, spouses need to be intentional about lifting each other up. To avoid losing the Christmas spirit (or just plain losing it) this time of year, my wife Holly and I make sure to love each other well".....

https://www.stewardship.com/articles/7-ways-to-love-your-spouse-during-the-christmas-chaos?ectid=50.16.7873

Kids Change Marriage Dynamics

"Once children come on the 'scene' it’s difficult not to center our lives around them. After all, their demands or 'needs' seem to cry out so much louder than ours. Our needs as a married couple, to continually grow closer together, are put on the back burner, usually for years. And that can be problematic in so many ways".....

https://marriagemissions.com/a-child-changes-the-dynamics-of-your-married-life/

Pebbles, Mountains, and Marriage

"When it comes to small frustrations and missteps, remember this: seek understanding first, you have bigger mountains to climb, and whenever necessary, let it go".....

https://fiercemarriage.com/let-go-pebbles-mountains-marriage

Your Wife's 3 Relationship Non-negotiables

"...one key to thriving in your relationship is to understand your wife. This is not to suggest that you should try to manipulate her. Rather, as you invest time and effort to understand your wife, you'll discover how to define romance using your wife's dictionary".....

http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/staying-married/husbands/your-wifes-3-relationship-nonnegotiables?spMailingID=12421314&spUserID=MTM0NTg3NzIxMDAyS0&spJobID=1282097669&spReportId=MTI4MjA5NzY2OQS2

Five Ways to Bring a Good Man Down

"When you reject God’s commands, no matter how small, you put yourself outside of his protection, and that one area becomes the area through which Satan injects poison into your life".....

https://jdgreear.com/blog/five-ways-bring-good-man/?utm_content=buffer89008&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

You planned the wedding but did you plan to stay in love?

"Falling in love is easy. It involves butterflies and long walks on moonlit beaches. You hear wedding bells, see fireworks and fall into something that feels perfect. Staying in love, however, is not so easy".....

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/gods-design-for-marriage/plan-to-stay-in-love

You Can't Let This Account Get to Zero

"Hollywood has dramatically distorted our notions of romance and confused us entirely about what makes passion burn. While watching Ryan Gosling pour his heart out in 'The Notebook' may make your heart pound, real-life romance is fueled by the ways in which you interact with each other in the little moments that make up your day. It is kept alive through a joined effort to stay connected. It is created each time you let your partner know that he or she is valued and loved by you".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/apply-the-research-building-your-emotional-bank-account/?utm_source=Marriage+Minute&utm_campaign=d4dd41fb57-MM_11142017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56abe07ac5-d4dd41fb57-135378537

Fighting for Your Wife

When it comes to body image our wives deal with an aggressive and mean passenger often, for some it’s every day. The passenger isn’t the culture or the images she sees in commercials, movies, and magazines. Those things just reinforce what the loud passenger is telling her. The aggressive and mean passenger is her internal voice.

http://www.allprodad.com/helping-your-wife-overcome-her-body-image-issues/

A Quick Test to Evaluate Your Marriage

Most of us, whether we realize it or not, evaluate our marriages almost every day.  If we’re in a social situation, we tend to wonder, 'How does our marriage measure up to theirs?' When we’re by ourselves, the evaluation is often along the lines of, 'Am I happier today than I was yesterday?' or 'Am I as happy today as I was the day we got married?'".....

http://www.garythomas.com/quicktesttoevaluateyourmarriage/

Marriage and a Child with Special Needs

"According to some research, the divorce rate for couples with special-needs kids hovers around 80 percent. More hopefully, however, other studies indicate that 18 percent of these couples in this situation say their children have brought them closer together. What’s the difference between the couples who rise to the challenge and those who don’t? Here are some tips".....

http://www.foryourmarriage.org/marriage-and-a-special-needs-child/

How to Protect Your Marriage

"Every day, your marriage enters a battlefield. What are you doing to protect your marriage against the dangers of, porn, workaholism, worry, pride, stress, fear, loss, addiction, comparison, social media, emotional cheating, that girl at the gym, in-laws, hormones, or idolizing your kids? To win a war, you have to know you’re in one".....

http://beating50percent.com/how-to-protect-your-marriage/

The Ultimate Relationship Killer

"Because we feel that it is important to 'know thine enemies,' in today’s blog post we will share Dr. Gottman’s greatest relationship killers that he has discovered in his 40+ years of research. These venoms, with which you can poison your relationship, can all be characterized as ways of 'turning against' each other’s bids for emotional connection".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/turning-against-bids-the-ultimate-relationship-killer/?utm_source=Marriage+Minute&utm_campaign=1f20ec23fa-MM_10312017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56abe07ac5-1f20ec23fa-135378537

Help for the Gridlocked Couple

"...Gottman suggests is to make a list of the parts of the issue that you cannot yield. Then, make a list of the things you could yield. (The point is to be as flexible as possible with your spouse.) Next, you share your list and then, compromise with one another. Regroup after a couple months to see if your plan is working".....

http://www.stupendousmarriage.com/gridlocked-conflict

How to be WRONG even when you're right

"Every couple has disagreements and conflicts. It’s inevitable. In most cases, our goal is to prove we are in the right. Today, I’m proposing a different, more radical goal: to maintain your connection".....

https://www.heavenmademarriage.com/how-to-be-wrong-when-you-are-right/

How God Saved My Marriage

"God saved my marriage not by fixing my wife’s problems, but by helping me see my own and showing me mercy where I am wrong. After years of apologizing, extending grace, and learning, we now are far more likely to repent and forgive than to fight and scratch".....

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-god-saved-my-marriage

Stop Taking Each Other for Granted

"In a life-changing talk, Doherty makes an important point about marriage. He explains that the natural trend of marriage is for romance, affection, appreciation, and communication to decline over time, not because couples start to dislike each other but because they become too comfortable together".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/3-daily-rituals-that-stop-spouses-from-taking-each-other-for-granted/

Differences Can Actually Make You Stronger

"Your differences can be your biggest asset as a couple—if you learn how to use them. Here are three steps for doing so".....

https://michaelhyatt.com/how-differences-with-your-spouse-can-make-your-marriage-stronger/

Help for a "hopeless" Marriage

"I am always grieved when I hear about another marriage that has ended in divorce, but I am also saddened by the many couples I know of who stay together but live with disappointment, having long ago given up on believing their relationship can ever be all they had hoped for. If that’s where you are, I want you to know that it is possible to turn a hopeless marriage into a hope-filled one".....

http://www.markmerrill.com/10-ways-to-go-from-a-hopeless-marriage-to-a-hope-filled-marriage/

My Spouse is Depressed

"Depression is one of the most misunderstood illnesses, and it often goes undiagnosed. Marriages all over the world suffer as a result of undiagnosed or untreated depression. Normally loving, affectionate spouses can become mean or abusive, which devastates intimacy and can lead to divorce".....

http://www.symbis.com/blog/spouse-and-depression/

Why Men Don't Change

"Many wives live with great frustration because they keep telling their husbands that something he is doing (or not doing) is causing them great pain, but the husband never changes. This confuses the wife. She thinks, 'If I knew I was doing something that was really hurting him, I’d stop it as soon as I found out. Why won’t he?'".....

http://www.garythomas.com/why-men-dont-change/

Poison That Will Kill Your Marriage

Bitterness comes when you hold onto hurt and refuse to forgive the person who hurt you. Most of the time, this comes as a result of ongoing actions of a small nature—lack of understanding, misuse of finances, harsh comments—that build up over time. Each offense takes residence in the heart, and at some point there is no more room left. That's when bitterness is manifested and causes the most damage.

http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/staying-married/forgiveness/dont-let-bitterness-poison-your-marriage

Four Things Married Men Should Never Do

"So, you’re a married men. Congratulations! Being married can be awesome and liberating. You get to spend the rest of your life with your best friend and someone who complements you completely – it’s tremendous. The thing about marriage is that it actually provides a framework for you to thrive and flourish, to become your true self rather than someone who is just angling for another score. But even though marriage is a time for you to feel free, there are a few things that married men should never do. Here are four of them".....

https://www.xxxchurch.com/men/4-things-married-men-never.html?utm_source=XXXchurch&utm_campaign=6a81f62cd9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6f5ecfab83-6a81f62cd9-69416647

5 Expectations that Ruin Marriages

"In marriage counseling, we almost always find that marital disappointment comes from unrealistic, and often unspoken, expectations spouses have one of another".....

http://ministry127.com/family-helps/5-expectations-that-ruin-a-marriage

5 Types of Couples...which one are you?

"Drawing from over four decades of research data, I have been able to categorize couples into five types: Conflict-Avoiding, Validating, Volatile, Hostile, and Hostile-Detached".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-5-couple-types/?utm_source=Marriage+Minute&utm_campaign=c66e9b2e05-MM_10102017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56abe07ac5-c66e9b2e05-135378537

Affairs are destroying our marriages

"I have determined that we need to start asking one another some tough questions. Like a man asking another man, 'Are you being the leader of your family and taking care of your wife's needs—spiritually? Emotionally? Sexually? Are you being sexually faithful to your wife? Are you being faithful mentally? Are you reading stuff you shouldn't?' And wife to wife: 'Are you sending your husband into the world hungry, with his sexual needs unmet? Are you a 'marriage bed magnet' that causes him to daydream at work about you!?'".....

http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/staying-married/romance-and-sex/affair-proof-your-marriage

Setting up the boundaries for Mom and Dad

"For many of you, the act of leaving your parents will be one of the most difficult steps of your life.  But it’s a vital step in the process of growing up and establishing your own home".....

http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/getting-married/newlyweds/leaving-your-parents-the-balancing-act

5 Communication Mistakes Almost Every Couple Makes

"No matter how in tune you are with your partner, misunderstandings and communication gaffes are always possible. Here are five of the most common, yet avoidable communication mistakes that could harm a relationship".....

https://lifehacker.com/five-communication-mistakes-almost-every-couple-makes-1535461741

The Anger Iceberg

"Think of anger like an iceberg, a large piece of ice found floating in the open ocean. Most of the iceberg is hidden below the surface of the water. Similarly, when we are angry, there are usually other emotions hidden beneath the surface. It’s easy to see a person’s anger but can be difficult to see the underlying feelings the anger is protecting".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-anger-iceberg/?utm_source=Marriage+Minute&utm_campaign=95954db141-MM_10032017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56abe07ac5-95954db141-135378537

Trash Your Marriage in 8 Easy Steps

"Sue Bohlin offers a tongue-in-cheek look at eight ways to tear down one's marriage, complete with eight opposite, biblical ways to build it back up".....

https://bible.org/article/trash-your-marriage-8-easy-steps

Can I ever trust them again?

"Almost every marriage has encountered difficulties over broken trust. I would even argue that most difficulties in marriage stem directly from a breach of trust. Strong marriages require strong trust, so here are nine key ways to rebuild it once it has been damaged".....

http://strongermarriages.com/9-steps-to-rebuilding-trust-in-marriage/

Are you teammates or enemies?

At some point, most couples will argue over how to discipline their children. After all, you and your spouse are different people who will naturally approach parenting differently at times—or maybe more often than you’d like. Understand that some disagreement is to be expected. Marriages, after all, are unions between people from different family backgrounds and beliefs, which can easily lead to parental tensions.

https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/parents-disagree-10-ways-parent-team/

Guys: Try the "Stay-At-Home" Date Night

"... I’ve learned something about what it takes to impress my bride. Two words: Stay home. This will ring true whether you’ve been married for more than 20 years or 20 days. Keep it simple and stay in. Okay, so there is more to it than just simply staying at home. It’s going to take a little effort to get there but here 4 ways that you can really impress her".....

http://blog.lifeway.com/leadingmen/2017/09/21/4-tips-for-a-stay-at-home-date-night/#.Wcq4MWhSyUk

Help...we keep arguing!

"Start with two selfish people with different backgrounds and personalities. Now add some bad habits and interesting idiosyncrasies, throw in a bunch of expectations, and then turn up the heat a little with the daily trials of life. Guess what? You are bound to have conflict. It’s unavoidable".....

http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/staying-married/resolving-conflict/6-steps-for-resolving-conflict-in-marriage

When Your Marriage is Dying

"Most church leaders, parents, pastors, family members, and individuals seek a 'formula' to answer this question. Unfortunately, there is no such recipe because each situation is unique and should be addressed as such.However, there are some essential steps couples must take if reconciliation is to be successful".....

http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/troubled-marriage/saving-a-marriage/when-your-marriage-is-dying

5 Good Things that Could Go Bad

"A good thing is always a good thing, right?  Well…yes and no.  Sometimes, you CAN have too much of a good thing.  There are many situations in our marriages and families that we might consider a “good thing”, but sometimes, we try to cram too much of it into our family life.  It’s a tricky balancing act that takes great consideration.  If we allow these good things to take priority over our marriage and family, then all we will have left is a damaged relationship with our spouse and children".....


http://sixseeds.patheos.com/ashleywillis/5-really-good-things-can-be-bad-for-marriage/

BREAKING: Men and Women think differently about sex

"It’s no surprise that many husbands and wives think differently about sex. And these differences can easily become a source of conflict in marriage".....

http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/staying-married/romance-and-sex/7-things-to-remember-about-sex?spMailingID=11939614&spUserID=MTM0NTg3NzIxMDAyS0&spJobID=1241441097&spReportId=MTI0MTQ0MTA5NwS2

Silent Storm: My Spouse Won't Talk to Me

"Why do couples buckle down in silence, and what are they saying through their silence? Sometimes it can be a mere personality trait, but it also can be a symptom of something far more significant".....

http://www.focusonthefamily.ca/content/silent-storm-when-your-spouse-wont-talk

Sexual Frequency in Marriage: 3 common questions

"At some point in every couple’s marriage—often in the early years—the question of sexual frequency comes up. They might find themselves wondering how often they 'should' be having sex, how to agree on frequency, or whether they’re normal".....

http://www.symbis.com/blog/sexual-frequency-marriage-3-common-questions/?utm_source=Devotion+by+Les+and+Leslie&utm_campaign=9d4369aca7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e61eb22cfc-9d4369aca7-138139101&mc_cid=9d4369aca7&mc_eid=82de7e3bbf

Successful Conflict?

"The problem with expressing needs in a negative way is it comes off like criticism. Despite what some people say, there is no such thing as constructive criticism. Criticism triggers a person to become defensive and protect themselves from an attack, which blocks the resolution of a conflict".....

https://www.gottman.com/blog/transforming-criticism-into-wishes-a-recipe-for-successful-conflict/?utm_source=Marriage+Minute&utm_campaign=49ac65805e-MM_09122017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56abe07ac5-49ac65805e-135378537