When someone you care about is grieving after a loss, it can be difficult to know what to say or do. The bereaved struggle with a variety of intense, painful emotions, which include depression, anger, guilt, and profound sadness. Often, they also feel isolated and alone in their grief, since the intense pain and difficult [...]
Boundaries are one of the most powerful tools you have in relationships. They make you feel like you matter and that you're safe. Asking for what you want makes relationships mutually satisfying. When boundaries are a struggle, you feel unsure of yourself. You go along with what others want because it's easier. You don't want [...]
An emotional "word picture" is a communication skill that brings to life the thoughts we want to share. It uses a story or object to simultaneously activate the emotions and intellect of another person. It causes them to experience our words, not just hear them. Five Reasons to Use Emotional Word Pictures: Word pictures have [...]
An old adage says, “Hurt people, hurt people.” It is well known that those who have been emotionally damaged tend to inflict their hurt and pain on others, particularly family and friends. This often accounts for the conflict that many couples experience. One or both bring emotional baggage from the past into the relationship, which [...]
“Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that [...]
When you’re having a disagreement with your spouse, you have two choices: You can respond or react. Reacting is a reflexive, defense mechanism that kicks in to protect our ego. We react because we sense that we are being misunderstood, dissed, criticized, corrected, or attacked. Reactions are typically impulsive (i.e., “shoot from the hip”) and [...]
It has been called by a variety of terms, such as "living together", "shacking up", "cohabitation,” "serial monogamy,” and "living in sin." By definition, cohabitation occurs when two unmarried people of the opposite sex live together before marriage. It is a halfway house, of sorts, for people who do not want the degree of personal [...]
Marital success or failure can now be predicted before the wedding day with 81 percent accuracy. The following is a seven-point checklist for preventing faulty mate selection. The decision to get married is made too quickly. It is a fact that choosing a mate for life is much more complex than the movies make it out to [...]
It’s getting harder by the day distinguishing Christians for non-Christians. This is particularly true in the area of divorce. Statistically, our failure rate for marriage is not significantly different from those outside of the faith. As a Christian counselor, nothing disturbs me more than to see a couple deliberately throw in the towel with little or no attempt [...]
“Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” I Pet. 3:7 (ESV) It's been a bad day; a really bad day. So, what do you [...]
