Marriage

I would venture to guess that most married couples can identify with escape, business meeting and maintenance dates in their relationship. But it is essential to be intentional about creating romantic memories, too.

Take some time today to acknowledge your spouse. If things have felt stressful while you attempt to juggle so much this summer, talk about it. Open communication goes a long way in our relationships. Be honest with each other, express your needs and hear the needs of your spouse.

Through counseling and discussing the covenant of marriage, my husband relearned the depth of God’s love for him and the forgiveness and grace he doesn’t deserve but is freely given.

Let's be honest; it feels nice to be served and waited upon. While tying the knot, we fancy the idea of having our spouses bend over backward to meet our needs. And while it is okay to expect our spouses to serve us, Scripture shows us a more excellent way - serving them."Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mathew 20: 26-28).In our quest to find fulfillment in our marriages, God gives us a secret tool - serving our spouses. Serving means attending to someone's needs above your own. As a wife, the best way to serve your husband is by meeting his needs. But before rolling up your sleeves to help him, it's important to know what really floats his boat. Because you can be knocking yourself out thinking that you are enthusing him while all the while you are irritating him.The best way to know how to serve your husband is by acquainting yourself with his needs which are most likely starkly different from yours. You may not even understand why he fancies the things he does. Serving him may require you to go against your grain. Paul encouraged the Church to esteem others above themselves."Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-4).As you serve your husband, you are heeding God's command of putting his interests above yours. You are also sowing good deeds into your marriage, and you will ultimately reap a harvest of a great marriage. Here are five ways in which you can serve your husband.

Perhaps the title of this article is a tad prickly to you because you are aware that the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church (Ephesians 5:23). How can the husband then be expected to serve his wife? Shouldn't it be the other way around? After all, it is common practice in almost all world cultures for leaders to be served and have people at their beck and call.But this is not the case in the kingdom we belong to. Paul asks husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her (Ephesians 5: 25). Christ's headship saw Him hanging on the cross to salvage His bride, the Church. He also declared that He did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10: 45).If husbands are to emulate Christ as the head of their wives, they must serve their wives. Serving your wife means prioritizing her and attending to her needs above yours. Serving her doesn't diminish your status as the head of your family. On the contrary, it elevates you. Jesus told His disciples that whoever desired to become great should become a servant (Mark 10:43). The biblical way of being lifted is by first crawling down. Here are X ways in which husbands can serve their wives.

Every healthy relationship requires a set of do's and don'ts, and marriage is no exception. Can two walk together unless they are in agreement? (Amos 3:3). Couples must stipulate the limits of the conduct they expect from each other. Boundaries express each partner's core values and encapsulate what they need to feel loved, secure, and respected. Boundaries are not meant to be restrictive.

If God says he is all that we need, why create the bonds and partnership of marriage? If he is supposed to be our comforter, our provider--then why?

God desires marriage to be between two believers; this means a man and a woman who both have placed their faith in Christ and follow Him. It doesn't matter which denomination you are a part of. As long as you are both believers, dating and getting married is okay.

Marriage is a sacred covenant created by God. He created men and women to be committed in their marriage until death do they part. This is not something to be taken lightly. We must be intentional daily to create a thriving marriage that glorifies God.Being a committed spouse means that we don't allow our hearts, minds, or bodies to venture outside of the covenant that we have made.The Bible says in Hebrews 13:4 that marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.Unfortunately, these laws are disregarded at every turn in our current culture. The world wants us to believe we can create our truth about marriage. But God created marriage laws to protect us. He desires for us to have thriving, committed marriages that reflect Him, which means fidelity and solid commitment to each other.Being in a committed marriage is becoming more and more difficult with the amount of pornography that is on display in multiple aspects. Billboards, movies, TV shows, magazines, and of course, the internet. The enemy is having a hay day with the number of inappropriate images infiltrating our minds.This can make it especially difficult to avoid the draw of pornography addiction. It is presented as normal and innocent when in reality, it is destroying lives and destroying families.Pornography addiction is an epidemic in our country. The damaging effects on marriages are devastating and harmful.Here are 4 ways that pornography damages a marriage:

Many of us are living out our own real-world version of Father Knows Best, but in our worlds, it’s Mom Knows Best – and there’s not always a whole lot of room for Dad.

Couples can fight their way into a divorce court, or they can fight their way to a better marriage. We all long for the latter. No one stands at the altar, hoping one day their relationship will fail. Rather, they dream of the increased closeness they’ll experience day by day as God melds their heart to their spouses. We all long for intimacy, to be fully known, our rough edges and all, and yet, to be loved deeply.But how do we get there? What do we do when our rough edges scrape against our spouse’s, and our sinful tendencies crash against theirs?Conflict happens but our marriage doesn’t have to end up a casualty. By following some clear, biblical guidelines, we can fight in such a way that builds, rather than destroys, our marriage.Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/dragana991

I personally love when my husband comes straight to me and gives me a big hug right when he gets home. It reminds me that he is on my team and that I matter to him. Make sure to never leave the house without first stopping for an embrace.

While walking down the aisle, my husband and I had no idea that depression would take such a toll on our marriage again and again. But even depression doesn't get the last word over God's redemption.

As Christians, it is more important than ever to be praying for people's marriages, especially for those who are going through a difficult season. Here are six prayers for a broken marriage.

Prayer is a powerful tool that connects us directly to the heart of God. Amid mental health challenges within marriage, we can come together as spouses, hand in hand, and pour out our burdens, fears, and struggles before the throne of grace.

Currently, there are many misconceptions of what marriage “is” circulating throughout our culture, confused and mistaken beliefs that try to change the meaning and significance of this holy union. Sadly, it’s drifting further and further away from God’s original design.Yet Ephesians 5:31 explains the beauty and simplicity of God’s design for marriage, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”Because our culture is at work redefining, deconstructing, and redesigning God’s marital plan with varying ideas, it’s more important than ever to look at what marriage isn’t.Below are seven things marriage isn’t, helping couples navigate through the muddled definitions and chart a clear course towards establishing a biblical marriage in today’s world:Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/mofles

Celebrating another year shared with the one your soul loves is so important! Celebration is holy work. It breaks up the mundane and reminds us of the love we have been gifted. We are so quick to forget that God has put you together and that he is writing a beautiful story with your shared lives.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” is a phrase you may have heard.While this phrase can exemplify gender stereotypes in a negative way, it is true for all humans that when we are hurt our natural response is anger, indignation, and it can be a struggle to find room in our hearts to forgive.I know when I start feeling “wronged” by my husband, I start answering his questions with cold one-word answers, I shoot annoyed glares his way, and when he finally asks what is wrong I tend to angrily unload my frustration on him.Despite knowing that my “go to” responses to frustrating situations help no one in our home, it is a struggle to not let anger and resentment harden my heart.Pausing to evaluate our feelings first, is a better way to handle the moments when we feel hurt, unseen, or betrayed by our partners. When we just let our reflex of anger drive our conversations, we only end up adding insult to injury.Taking a moment to pause and pray can help us find a better path forward in our relationships that hopefully leads to healing and reconciliation.Is This Phrase in the Bible?No, this phrase is not in the Bible. This saying originates from The Mourning Bride, a tragic play by English playwright William Congreve from 1697. The whole line actually reads “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”This phrase has been interpreted to mean that a woman who has felt rejected or betrayed can be a powerful force of anger.Here are a few ideas of what not to do when you feel scorned by your significant other.Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Christian Fregnan

In this over-sexed and under-loved world, people are looking for the real deal, the secret to lasting love with a vibrant sex life. Because of this pursuit for a purer passion, the most asked question we get when it comes toRed Hot Monogamy is,“What is okay with God?”First and foremost, sex is for marriage. Ephesians 5:31-32 (quoting Genesis) "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 reinforces this with the reminder, “It is God’s will that you keep away from sexual sin as a mark of your devotion to him” (1 Thessalonians 4:3, GW).So the place to begin if you are single is to value your future sexual love by protecting your present integrity. Bill and I said “Yes!” to obeying God’s guidelines before marriage by wholesome dating with lots of safety, being together—in public: walks on the beach, picnics in a park, lunch at sidewalk café, candlelit dinner by the fire in a nice restaurant—public places before marriage will protect private moments after marriage.For married couples, God gives only a few clear commands on what is and isn’t permissible with the gift of sex he created. Instead of a list of “no-no’s” let’s look at his guidelines in the affirmative:

I will be the first to say I never thought I would fight this hard for my marriage.During our engagement days I had starry-eyed dreams of my future husband and I coming together in perfect unity the moment the wedding ceremony ended. The only baggage following us would be the fun luggage we would use on our honeymoon. These were high hopes really. Common hopes.What I’ve come to find is that marriage is both a blessing and a battle – a gift and a giving away of yourself, all of which can bring about God’s glory. Marriage cultivates on holy ground, where two become one and both are coupled to Christ. At least, this is how our kind God designed it to be.But we know we live in a fallen world, one where relationships are imperfectly scarred and hurts run long and deep. Marriages have the capacity to dissolve in the aftermath of continued disappointment. I know mine was on the track leading to divorce for over a decade. If it weren’t for the mighty workings of our faithful God, we may not be together today.Photo Credit: © Getty Images/mictian