What does a Healthy Marriage Look Like? To be healthy in any area of our lives, it takes work and being intentional.\u00a0 If you want to get healthy physically you need to eat right and exercise.\u00a0 This does not mean perfect but healthy.\u00a0 When one area of our lives is out of whack or unhealthy it affects all the other areas of our lives.\u00a0 When we are struggling financially, it causes stress on our relationships and work.\u00a0 When we are struggling with a relationship with our spouse or children, it causes us to be distracted, unfocused and can even affect our work performance and work relationships.\u00a0 Many times we try to compartmentalize our work, our family, our faith and our person time, but the reality is that they all affect each other either in a positive healthy way or a negative unhealthy way.<\/p>\n
Marriage is one of the most difficult relationships we will ever have in our lives.\u00a0 I believe marriage is hard work, because we all struggle with selfishness and unhealthy views of what marriage should or shouldn\u2019t be.\u00a0 Many times we have learned about marriage from our parents, from television or the movies or from other people we see from a distance.\u00a0 Many of the things we have learned are not healthy.\u00a0 The way in which we handle conflict; the way we communicate; the way we approach sex; the way in which we parent; the way in which we handle our finances; the way in which we handle extended family issues; the way in which we do household chores.<\/p>\n
What I want to share with you today are some of the best practices I have learned over the 23 years of my own marriage and also what I have learned as a pastor over the last 10 plus years in meeting with couples.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 Understand & Speak the right Love Language<\/strong><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Recognize & Stop the Fear Dance or Crazy Cycle<\/strong><\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Understand & Nurture the three types of intimacy needed in marriage<\/strong><\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Understand & Improve the way in which you communicate<\/strong><\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Understand How Powerful Forgiveness is \u2013 Every relationship has to practice forgiveness.<\/strong><\/p>\n These five practices are vital to having a healthy marriage, but it takes work and practice.\u00a0 It also takes humility to admit that you need to make a change and do things differently in order to improve you marriage.\u00a0 Sometimes it takes working with a counselor or mentor in order to make the necessary adjustments and changes.\u00a0 The good news is that your marriage can change and improve and be healthy and all the work is worth it.\u00a0 Remember that you cannot control your spouse and what he or she does, but you can control what you do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does a Healthy Marriage Look Like? To be healthy in any area of our lives, it takes work and being intentional.\u00a0 If you want to get healthy physically you need to eat right and exercise.\u00a0 This does not mean perfect but healthy.\u00a0 When one area of our lives is out of whack or unhealthy … <\/p>\n\n
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