No Backup Plan, No Regrets

There’s profound joy in the mutual and reckless pursuit of each other in marriage. Marriage requires a fierce tenacity that never gives up and never gives in. What does this reckless pursuit actually look like in marriage? What enables it within every complex issue and circumstance you will face? To start, look at Christ’s example. He pursues you without fail. It’s his steady pursuit that…

6 Ways to Affair-Proof Your Marriage

Affairs take two common forms: emotional and sexual. In either case, by the time an actual affair materializes, there have been latent and unaddressed problems for a long time. “Affair proofing”, if we can call it that, includes proactively building systems and rhythms into your marriage that will make it much less likely that you’ll start down the subtle path toward an affair. Today, at…

Part 2: How To Stay Connected When You Aren’t Connecting

This mini-series is about connecting at a deeper level in the midst of dry and barren times in your marriage. The primary way we are highlighting how to connect better is through scripture reading together. Reading the bible, discussing it, and of course I would include prayer in this as well. It’s important to address the deeper heart issues happening before we start prescribing tools like “how…

Why Understanding Covenant is Absolutely Foundational for Your Marriage

We are big advocates for understanding the “why” behind the “what.” This is especially true for the idea of covenant. When we can understand the deeper meaning of covenant, we are better equipped to understand its importance for every facet of modern-day marriage. There is wisdom to be mined, understanding to be gleaned, and a clearer and more joyful path for our marriage when we…

Part 1: How To Stay Connected When You Aren’t Connecting?

No matter how great your marriage is we all know and have experienced seasons in the wilderness so to speak. By “wilderness” I mean days, weeks, months, or possibly even years, where our marriage feels dry and barren. To some of us, this time feels fruitless and empty…you can’t seem to connect with each other (emotionally, let alone physically) and marriage feels more like a…

Two Ways to Grow in Trust

The one thing Ryan wants from me is my trust. It’s been something that is hard for me to give to him for many reasons, one in particular is the fact that my parents divorced when I was eight years old. God has definitely been faithful in bringing healing and redemption in my life, and he’s worked all of the brokenness for my good. However,…

Fight for Unity, Fight for Your Marriage

Your marriage is a union forged by God! He has sealed your covenant and joined you as one. Let not anyone separate what God brought together. Fight for unity! Fighting for unity means protecting yourselves from division and divisive people. This is especially true if you’re going through a hard time. Always remember: you can still be unified during a disagreement. Selena and I recently…

Video: 3 Bulletproof Ways to Build Unstoppable Unity

We’ve been through quite a bit in our 13 years of marriage. We’ve suffered loss together, faced life-threatening sickness, fought and argued countless times, and enjoyed a bounty of joyful seasons. It seems that most enter marriage expecting to experience the latter (joy) most if not all the time, but they forget to prepare for the difficult seasons. Every married couple struggles at some point.…

Video: Maintaining a Healthy Sex Life After We’ve Had Kids

There is quite a learning curve when you get married. Lots to learn, lots to figure out. Sooner or later, kids arrive on the scene and everything changes, so you have to start re-learning how to maintain a healthy marriage in new, wonderful ways. One of the biggest challenges most couples face (and we’ve gotten this question quite a bit) is how to maintain a…

5 Indispensable Habits for Rock-Solid Communication

There’s such security knowing that we’re both in this marriage thing for the long haul. Selena and I are far from perfect…FAR. In fact, we’ve had two significant arguments in the past 15 hours, and that includes 7-8 hours of sleep, hanging out with friends for 3 hours, and about 2 hours of work. That leaves about 2-3 hours where we’ve been alone together and we…