Prayer Leah & I start every day off with prayer time. Some days are long, deeply emotional prayers as God moves us, and other mornings are quick words of praise and proclamations. Monday’s also include staff meetings. This was today!! Of course, it’s just like every Monday’s team meeting unless we’re sitting in a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Promise No matter how it looks, are you and your spouse sharing prayer time, setting a marriage vision and building the infrastructu

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11 When that old serpent tries to bring me down by suggesting I stop promoting post about family and second chances at a loving relationship because we’re a blended family, I shut him down in Christ’s name. I’m not going to be quiet. I spent the majority of my life focused on career, and solving everyone else’s problems while my

Dating Your Spouse: Blue Marriage: Remember when you’d walk across glass to get a glimpse of your sweetie? What happened? Okay, don’t ever forget what it was that drew you together. Now, do that more often. Here are just a few of the benefits of being in Love #1. Physical Changes – Love has physiological effects on your body. Chemical levels such as dopamine, testosterone, norepinephrine, histocompatibility complex (MHC), and Pheromones shift. These are all positive benefits.

Sex In Marriage: Blue Marriage God’s design for sex is a lifetime of pleasure and delight. Sex should be something we enjoy and look forward to in marriage. In a healthy relationship, there is effort and forethought given towards sex to make it fun and pleasurable. However, Satan’s ultimate goal is that we will be ashamed of our sexuality so that we won’t talk about sex with our spouse. The good news is, you don’t have to live a life full of frustration, shame and rejection.

Face It: Big money = big problems, no money = no problems. Okay, anyone who believes that, just stop reading right here. Money is by far one of the most fought over issues in relationships. Next, blend two individuals from independent socio-economic backgrounds, and you’ve got an epic blowout just waiting to occur. Second marriages are already statistically set to fail. National averages show about 63% of next time arounds end in divorce. Other than the frantic rebounding rel

Profiles In Personal Pain: Which One Are You and How Do You Manage It? What’s really eating away at you? Are regrets consuming your thoughts so you’re forced to shut them down? Can you sit in silence without a mental movie flooding your brain and demanding that you fill the quiet? You’re not alone. The pain we carry from our past is tucked away and always available to muck up our lives or turn gold star moments into brown star regrets. We allow pain, shame and regret to consu

5 Dangers In Marriage Money Management DANGER #1 – DISREGARDING THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS IN YOUR FINANCES DANGER #2 – DISRESPECTING YOUR SPOUSE’S FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE AND INPUT DANGER #3 – DOMINANCE OF MONEY AND FINANCIAL DECISIONS DANGER #4 – DISAGREEMENT ABOUT FINANCIAL DECISIONS, PRIORITIES AND VALUES DANGER #5 – DEBT #Money #Divorce #Pray #Marriage #God #respect #Security #danger

No Divorce Resource: God’s Plan / Learn How God created marriage to be everlasting. While there are no perfect marriages, the best ones come from two people who love Christ and refuse to give up. Marriage Matters wants to help you get through the weeds and discover what God truly intended marriage to be. Signup Now Our free resources and Marriage Matters.TV share proven principles that lead to a marriage built upon the ROCK. Signup now, and we’ll send you free access to Marri

Eden’s Blame Game: Where Was Adam? There are still people blaming Eve for causing Adam to sin, and thus separating themselves from God. But where was Adam while Eve was having to deal with a masterful enemy on her own? Was he off doing his own thing? Did he need a little “me time,” or discover a great fishing spot or maybe fantasizing about another, better looking “Eve.” God created man and woman to become one. Think about mashing duct tape across a piece of paper. Now try se

My mom will say that as her senior year of high school came to an end, while her friends planned colleges and careers, her only plan post-high school was to marry Bill (my dad) and raise children. Her father asked her to try a year of college just to avoid any “I wish I had” in the future. So, she pushed through a year of community college, finished with no intention of going back, and started planning her wedding. Next month, my parents will fly to their hometown and celebra

The first business day after the New Year is commonly called D-Day (Divorce Day). It’s the busiest day of the year for people to call their attorneys and start divorce proceedings. The holidays are hard on a lot of people and families. Believe me, you’re not alone. It was Christmas when I thought my marriage would end. When everything I thought I’d known about myself, my husband, and our marriage had turned out to be a lie. It was Christmas when I put a smile on my face that

The first business day after the New Year is commonly called D-Day (Divorce Day). It’s the busiest day of the year for people to call their attorneys and start divorce proceedings. The holidays are hard on a lot of people and families. Believe me, you’re not alone. It was Christmas when I thought my marriage would end. When everything I thought I’d known about myself, my husband, and our marriage had turned out to be a lie. It was Christmas when I put a smile on my face that

Missed The Mark I generally like Dr. Phil. I’ve never watched an episode, but what I have seen appears to be a calm, caring man with a heart for others. While researching a topic on blended families for our next book, I came across this video. Naturally I had to watch. This is big-time syndicated television after all. While I completely agree with what Dr. Phil said about pre-marital counseling, I do not agree with his position on discipling children as a non-biological paren

Great is Thy Faithfulness… I‘m a private person, despite the fact that I have a very public life. There are aspects of my first marriage that I’ll never discuss with anyone but my husband. The main reason is because I have children who love their father, and I want to honor that. I will say that my first marriage wasn’t a healthy one. I didn’t learn how unhealthy it really was until I went to counseling during my divorce. I was only fourteen-years-old when I met my first husb

A few months ago, Danny and I were honored to attend his son David’s wedding. I cannot thank the Lord enough for the blessing of the healed relationship between my husband and his son. We’ve cherished getting to know Danny’s new daughter-in-law Veronica, and of course the grandkids are a gift to our hearts as well. Imperfection The song the happy couple chose for their first dance was one I’d never heard, but it brought me to tears as soon as I heard the chorus. If you’ve

An Unattainable Benchmark I’m not sure there’s any verse in the bible that’s more daunting to write about than Proverbs 31:10-31. The first time I read it, I remember thinking, “Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to read that one again.” As a twenty-something-year-old woman, that verse was intimidating. How could any woman live up to those standards? But now, as a mumble-mumble-something-year-old woman, I have a very different understanding and appreciation of the verse. My husban

Be Resolved Our church has been studying II Timothy 1:12 with the theme “Be Resolved.” So Sunday, Pastor began a series of sermons about love—specifically, being resolved to love. I think many of us are still trying to figure out what to feel and think after the Charlottesville tragedy, and he began the discussion of being resolved to love by talking about hate. Hate and love are not two emotions on the same spectrum, he told us. Hate originates from sin. Love, however, is

Shocked How many of you were as shocked as I was by Lysa TerKeurst’s blog post last week? I can raise my hand high in response. I was more than shocked. But not because Lysa announced she was divorcing her husband of almost twenty-five years because of repeated infidelity and substance abuse. But because her writing was so full of hurt, devastation, numbness, and the rigid control we (as women) strive to have when our lives are spiraling out of our control. I recognized her.

On July 1, 2017 Leah and I took off on our Harley Davidson motorcycle. We’d planned a 6,000 mile trip around the United States. I’m a bit more of the motorcycle enthusiast, so to say it was all I focused on for months prior was an understatement. Our weeks of planning and mapping out routes for hotels, restaurants, visiting landmarks and seeing friends kept our focus zeroed in on the road trip around America. Leah and I pray together daily. Unfortunately, we get rushed and al

This is one of those blog posts that turned into a tough love segment somewhere along the way. Mostly tough love for me. I learned a lot while writing this post. ********************* It’s incredible to look back on years as specific benchmarks in our lives. I was born in 1980. I accepted Christ in 1989. I became a mom in 2001. I quit teaching to write full-time in 2011. Scott and I met in 2013. We married in 2015. These were all years that impacted my life significantly. 201