Marriage Partnership articles from December 2002

Marriage Partnership archives from December 2002

Snuggle time priorities. (From The Editors).
December 22, 2002... I'm not a big fan of winter. I don't like being cold. I don't like that the days are shorter. And I especially don't like the added poundage to my thighs from eating the heartier winter food (read: thick, cream-based soups). But there's one...

Submission savvy. (Letters).
December 22, 2002... "What's So Scary About Submission?" by Kevin Miller was wonderful. When I started to read it, I didn't believe it would apply to my husband and me. The more I read, though, the more I realized our misunderstanding of submission could be the...

Scheduling sex. (Letters).
December 22, 2002... With four young children in our family, I could easily insert myself into the scenario author Margie Sims presented in "Strategic Sex." While it's a challenge to connect intimately with our spouses in such a fast-paced world, it's worth the...

Emotional affairs. (Letters).
December 22, 2002... Thanks for "Could I Forgive His Emotional Affair?" by Elizabeth Walker. I thought I was alone in this area. My husband and I almost divorced over a similar situation. Confession, limited contact with the opposite sex, and communication helped...

Tackling tough stuff. (Letters).
December 22, 2002... "Celebrating Marriage on a Lousy Day" by Jim Killam is the kind of article that builds a good marriage. I live in a real world full of headaches, body pain, money problems, and things that just don't go the way I want them to. Our relationship...

Hooked on pornography. (Letters).
December 22, 2002... "The Appeal of Porn" by Dr. McBurney only scratched the surface. It's also important to find a support/accountability group in addition to counseling. This is a difficult addiction to break and needs the support of others who've gained victory....

Words of wisdom. (couple minutes)(Cover Story).
December 22, 2002... 1. One "zinger" can wipe out 20 acts of kindness. When you learn to edit your thoughts, consider the impact of your words, and control what you say, your marriage handles the bumpy roads much more smoothly. 2. Every relationship has a...

In God we trust? (Couples Devotional).
December 22, 2002... It's easy for us to say we're trusting God, but are we doing so with our fingers crossed behind our backs? God alone is sure of the future. Sometimes we need to get out of the way and let him act, to wholly trust the process to him--however...

Running on empty?
December 22, 2002... Whether you've been together 5 months, 5 years, or 50 years, you'll experience times when you feel your marriage is running on empty. To refuel, try these fun ideas. 1. When your partner travels, include a card with a special message for...

Make love, not colds.
December 22, 2002... Want to avoid getting a cold this year? Make love weekly and eat--or sniff!--chocolate. Carl Charnetski, a professor of psychology at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, says that smelling or eating chocolate and having sex once or twice a week...

You said it!
December 22, 2002... "It doesn't matter if everything you say is right and everything I say is wrong. The fact is, I still feel this way, so it counts." James Carville "I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to." Unknown "The easiest...

MarriagePartnership.com surveys: emotional affairs. (couple minutes).
December 22, 2002... THINK EMOTIONAL AFFAIRS AREN'T AS BAD AS PHYSICAL ONES? THINK AGAIN. In a recent MP online survey, here's what 1,500 respondents said: Emotional affairs are just as bad: 62% Emotional affairs are not just as bad: 28%...

Savings secret. (couple minutes).
December 22, 2002... Need another reason to start and stick with a budget? A recent survey reported in Glamour magazine states that 58 percent of Americans polled said their sex life improves when their finances do.

'Til debt do us part. (Between The Covers).
December 22, 2002... If discussing budgets makes your eyes glaze over, author Julie Ann Barnhill understands. And that's exactly what you won't find in her recent book, 'Til Debt Do Us Part (Harvest House). What you will find is how to deal with the heart,...

Heart-healthy work? (couple minutes).
December 22, 2002... Are traditional gender work roles healthier than nontraditional ones? According to a study presented to the American Heart Association, househusbands have an 82 percent higher 10-year death rate than men who work outside the home. And women in...

Snapshot.
December 22, 2002... While Jeff Tarpley and Sherri Shepherd are popular comedians (watch for Sherri on the ABC sitcom, Less Than Perfect, and Jeff in numerous commercials), they take their marriage seriously. They have to--they live and work in Hollywood where most...

Surviving family get-togethers.
December 22, 2002... For many people, Thanksgiving heralds a month of family myths often culminating in January depression. Here are ten ways you can keep a family festival from turning into a family feud. 1. TRY TO KEEP YOUR EXPECTATIONS REALISTIC. 2....

Do you remember? (couple minutes).
December 22, 2002... Does it seem as if wives never forget spats--and men never remember them? Well, research shows there's some biological truth to that. A group of psychologists discovered the reason is because women's neural responses to emotional scenes are...

"The most memorable marital advice we were given". (couple minutes).
December 22, 2002... If you take care of the grass on your side of the fence, the other side won't seem so appealing. After all, all grass has to be mowed and tended. And who knows? Maybe the other grass is greener because it requires more fertilizer. ...

Baking briefs.
December 22, 2002... Deborah Tukua shares these handy tips from her book, Pearls of Kitchen Wisdom (Lyons Press), to help cut down on baking stress during the holidays. --Want to melt baker's chocolate without a messy pot to clean afterward? Wrap chocolate...

"My favorite couple holiday tradition".
December 22, 2002... At the end of the day, after all the presents have been opened and played with, the wrapping paper cleaned up, and the kids put to bed, my wife and I exchange a personal and loving gift--separate from those presents we give to each other during...

We're too busy! (Early Years).
December 22, 2002... Q. My wife and I both love our jobs. But now that we're married, it seems our relationship has taken a back seat to our busy schedules. How can we do everything and still have quality time with each other? A. We hate to be the bearer of...

A commuter marriage: Chuck thought Marita should support his job move. She thought he should consider her job needs, too. (Work It Out).
December 22, 2002... Three years ago, because of some upheaval in Chuck's industry as a counselor, he was forced to seek new employment. When he couldn't find anything locally, he began to look out-of-state and found a job in Colorado, five-and-a-half hours away...

He doesn't want kids. (Couple Counsel).
December 22, 2002... Q. I desperately want to have children. While my husband has a nine-year-old son from his previous marriage, he doesn't want to have kids with me. He says he does but then makes excuses for postponing any attempts each month. I think it's...

The soul cure: sometimes the best way to solve marital problems is to spend time alone with God. (Soul To Soul).
December 22, 2002... We'd barely been seated and handed our menus when Alan began to pour out the details of his difficult marriage in agonizing emotional heaves. We learned his wife, Diane, suffered from terrible premenstrual syndrome as well as bouts of...

I was addicted to romance: how could escapist fantasies hurt anyone? (Back from the brink: a real-life story of a marriage in recovery).
December 22, 2002... When I met Dan * at church I was sure our life would be perfect. During the next three years, while he was enrolled fulltime at college, we married and had two children. But life wasn't perfect. After Dan graduated, we found jobs with a...

Busting the myths of a Christian marriage: we thought being Christians would save us from marital problems. Our naive beliefs made everything worse.
December 22, 2002... "LARRY, WE HAVE TO TALK," I said as my husband prepared to go to work. Our argument from the night before still hung in the air. "There's something wrong with our marriage." "Judy, I have to go," Larry said, clearly irritated. "Don't...

Are the kids pulling you apart? How to choose marriage when minors want all of you.
December 22, 2002... I pulled into the parking lot and checked my watch. I had 3.5 minutes t,o get the cupcakes to Room 204 for my son Cody's homeroom party. I reached into the backseat and lifted the foil to make sure none of my creations had been smushed,...

Promoting marriage: President Bush's marriage advocate, Wade Horn, believes your marriage can make a difference.
December 22, 2002... Wade Horn doesn't view himself or his ideas as particularly revolutionary. He'd say he's merely the promoter of an obvious prescription: Healthy marriages can cure all sorts of societal ills, and they should be promoted by government and...

The compare snare: what to do if you think your spouse doesn't "stack up" to someone else's.
December 22, 2002... Kathy * planned a wonderful vacation for her 39th birthday in which she whisked away her 12-year-old daughter, Libby, to meet their best friends, Hally and daughter, Brooke. Living far from each other, the two women chose a mid-point city to...

Surviving a financial crisis: here's how two couples responded to money woes.
December 22, 2002... JAY * AND MARY had been married five years. When they had their first child, Mary quit her job to be a stay-at-home mom. They felt confident that Jay's job as a sales representative would bring in enough money to provide for their family. They...

Improving your sexual IQ: no matter how often couples have sex, few know how to talk about this important topic. Heres how.
December 22, 2002... JIM AND KAREN were both virgins when they got married 21 years ago. Like many young couples, they had fairly unrealistic views of what sex would be like. "Hit and miss" might be a pretty good description of their sex life after the honeymoon;...

Why can't my wife lose weight?
December 22, 2002... Wrong approach: nagging my wife about her size. What worked: my physician told me to diet. I was raised in a family where keeping your weight under control was important. When Helen and I got married, she worked hard to keep her weight...

When is "looking" lust? (Real Sex).
December 22, 2002... Q. Sometimes when I look at a woman I become aroused. I'm happily married and don't intentionally set out to get turned on, it just seems to happen! Is that wrong? How long is too long to look at a woman--especially if it's at the movies or on...

Curing the 7-year itch: would an anniversary card really make any difference? (Viewpoint).
December 22, 2002... I'd heard about couples who loved each other so deeply they could almost read each other's thoughts. As a girl I dreamed of this closeness; as a woman I found it with the man I married. We had an unspoken language, a knowing about each other....