MarriedPeople Couples

I recently received an email from Heather Patenaude, a woman who is passionate about marriage. She attached a blog post with her email that I want to share with you. She wrote it specifically to moms of pre-preschoolers, but it applies to all of us! Thanks Heather! Ted Do you remember the first time you… [read more]

Phillipians 4:8 says think about the great stuff. This Valentine’s Day, think about what makes your spouse great. Fill in the blanks below, seal it in an envelope and leave it in a place they will find it when you are not around. 1) True The thing I respect the most about you is… __________________________________________________________… [read more]

Once again, Dr. John Gottman is one of my main go-to experts when it comes to marriage research. He offers that there are two states that a relationship can exist in: • Number One: Positive Sentiment Override (PSO), In PSO, comments and behaviors outweigh negative ones about 20:1. This means that there is a positive… [read more]

There’s a great question in Jim Carey’s version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, when Cindy Lou Who invites the Grinch to be the Holiday Cheermeister. In confusion he responds with “Holiday, Hoobie, Whatty?” Believe it or not, this time of year “Holiday, Hoobie, Whatty?” pops up often in my conversations with Nancie. Example One:… [read more]

I  want you to hear from someone very dear to me. She’s my first cousin, but we have, depending on the day, more of an uncle/niece or brother/sister type of relationship. But this isn’t nepotism; I have many family members you will never hear from. Payden and Lane have only been married 3 years, but… [read more]

Last post, we took a look at a man’s need for relational football helmet stickers. If you missed it, you will definitely need to read it for this post to make sense. So, what would it look like if you gave your husband relational helmet stickers that were specific, visible and honoring? Maybe he is… [read more]

My 11-year-old son just finished his first season of tackle football. One of the things he loved most was receiving helmet stickers. As a pregame ritual, players would receive small, skull stickers for “exceptional” plays they had made in the previous game. Each week, when he received one or two stickers, the look on his… [read more]

I’m going to tell you a bit of my sad story. But don’t worry, I use bluntness, sarcasm and humor to mask the pain, so it shouldn’t be too “Beaches.” Growing up I experienced a lot of grief. When I was 10, my uncle who was also my Dad’s business partner died suddenly, a month… [read more]

Who is that couple you never dreamed would get a divorce, who got a divorce?  I would dare say, all of us have a couple who fits that description. Why is that the case? Why do we not hear from these couples until it is too late? The constant thing I hear over and over,… [read more]

One of the MarriedPeople Core Four Habits of a Great Marriage is Practice Your Promise- I want you to hear what my friend Carey Nieuwhof, Lead Pastor of Connexus Community Church, has to say about loving once the spark is gone. Falling in love is an emotional process. You feel things you’ve never felt before…. [read more]