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Many people are naturally encouraging with their friends. And they’re polite and uplifting to clerks, servers, and strangers. But often the filter comes off when they walk through their front door, and their spouse gets the worst of their words. Couples may think that their biggest problem is that thing they can’t agree on, but often it’s the way they speak with one another that can do the most damage. The Bible helps us rethink how we communicate with our partner.
Sometimes we avoid saying things in order to avoid burdening or hurting our spouse, but when hard conversations are regularly avoided, it can create distance in a marriage. This post looks at how to communicate honestly, graciously, and openly even when what you have to say is difficult.
When a spouse fails to listen well, the problems that were signaled with cues and comments early on grow into something much bigger, and their partner can be left feeling unheard and unloved. This post looks at how to improve listening and reflect the way that God Himself sees and hears us.
When husbands and wives disagree, what do biblical headship and submission look like? The Bible offers more than slogans, giving couples principles for exercising leadership, expressing disagreement, and seeking a path forward.
What does Elihu teach us about suffering? While Job's three friends offer flawed counsel, Elihu leaves us with three questions that can reshape how we understand suffering, lament, and spiritual growth.
If you’re a Christian parent, at some point, church will probably be a challenge for you and your kids. It was for me, and yet in retrospect, those challenges blessed our kids and our family, and I’m grateful for them. Let me share some of the lessons we learned when church was hard.
Friendships can either make learning attractive or they can derail a child’s motivation altogether. Friendships are where a child learns how to relate to others and works at practicing patience, forgiveness, kindness, and compassion. Most parents talk to their kids about grades. I’m convinced we need to talk to them at least as much about relationships. Here are four conversations I think parents and children need to have.
What’s ironic is that you tell yourself you’re making these sacrifices for your child, but the tension in your relationship is actually adding stress to your parenting and anxiety to your children.
Some people feel stifled by a freedomless marriage and other married couples are like single people who happen to share the same address. The way that the members of the Trinity relate model for us a vision of marriage marked by profound unity without the loss of individuality.
Christian women see Proverbs 31 as another burden they have to wear, but rightly read, it’s actually intended to do the opposite. The entire poem contains only a single command, and it isn’t addressed to women. The command comes after multiple statements about the woman’s children calling her blessed and her husband praising her.
