Marriage Partnership articles from June 2004

Marriage Partnership archives from June 2004

Fun in an old VW.(From the Editor)
June 22, 2004... One day last September, my husband, Scott, left me a voice mail message at work: "Hi, just wanted to let you know you're the proud owner of a VW convertible. Bring home money." What is he talking about? I thought. So I called him and...

Handyman? Not!(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... What a terrific article ("Water, Water Everywhere," Spring 2004)! I laughed so hard, I cried. During the first couple years of marriage, I always used the biggest nail I could find to hang a picture. I didn't want it to fall off the wall, after...

Blended families.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... "Dangerous Crossing" shed light on the difficulties in my blended marriage. I'm divorced with two teenage children; my husband has never been married. Every day is a challenge and articles like this help me realize there's light at the end of...

I lost out.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... Thanks for your points and accountability in your Couple Counsel department. Today should have been my 21st wedding anniversary. But I'll spend it alone--because my sexual addiction began online, then moved to acting out. I still battle...

Bipolar disorder.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... How timely and important your Back from the Brink is ("I Was Married to Jekyll and Hyde," Winter 2003). May we suggest several resources? The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has established a resource for clergy leaders and family...

Newlyweds--still.(Couple Minutes)(Excerpt)
June 22, 2004... Enjoy each other more with ever passing year. 1. Always remember to play. Take off your shoes and run barefoot. Have a pillow fight. It doesn't matter how you play, as long as you play! 2. Encourage each other's innocence. Strip away...

The romantically impaired.(Couples Devotional)(Excerpt)
June 22, 2004... "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). I used to think expressions of love came only in velvet jeweler's boxes, rosy bouquets, or boxes of Godiva chocolate. Now I'm married, and I...

You said it!
June 22, 2004... "Take each other for better or worse, but not for granted." --Arlene Dahl "What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility." --George Levinger "The secret of...

Shoulda, coulda, woulda.(Between the Covers)(Les Parrott)(Interview)
June 22, 2004... MP regular contributor Dr. Les Parrott tells of a farmer who grieved when lightning killed an old pear tree he'd climbed as a boy and whose fruit he'd eaten all his life. When asked what he intended to do with the remains of his beloved tree,...

MarriagePartnership.com surveys: ministry x 2.(Couple Minutes)
June 22, 2004... Are you and your spouse involved in ministry together? According to a recent MP online survey of 384 people: [] YES, and it's great! 53% [] NO, but we are considering it. 21% [] NO, we don't have the time. ...

Cut the clutter!(Couple Minutes)
June 22, 2004... Try these six tips to help you and your spouse minimize the mess: 1. Take joint ownership of problems and solutions. Instead of starting sentences with "You should," try, "How do we want to solve this?" 2. Assume the other person has a...

Keeping connected.(Snapshot)
June 22, 2004... Paul and Rebecca Colman left behind home and families, making the risky move from Australia so Paul could pursue a music career in the United States. Their gamble paid off: The Paul Colman Trio earned a 2003 Grammy nomination and the Dove Award...

What was your best vacation ever?(Couple Minutes)
June 22, 2004... "We spent a fun-filled week of being kids together at Disneyworld--just the two of us! We did whatever we wanted, when we wanted, and spent our time taking in the joy of life as a couple. We've never stopped talking about how sweet the memories...

Budget burnout.(Couple Minutes)
June 22, 2004... Four common pastimes actually ignite spending: 1. The more shopping we do, the more we spend. 2. The more we watch television, the more we spend. 3. The more time we spend looking through catalogs, the more we spend. 4. The...

The need for speed.(Couple Minutes)
June 22, 2004... Lead-foot Mama! That's my wife's nickname. Joy loves speed. After our second year of marriage, Joy approached me about buying a couple of dirt bikes. I hesitated. What if I didn't enjoy riding? But she appealed to my desire for a common...

Date night discounts.
June 22, 2004... Here are three ways to keep your next night out affordable. The Restaurant: Go online before you dine. Look for coupons at www.citysearch.com. The Show: Many movie theater chains offer ticket discounts if you join their rewards...

Contest: Win! Win! win!(Couple Minutes)
June 22, 2004... MP. Do you have an engagement story that makes people smile and say, "Aww"? Share it with MP! MARRIAGE PARTNERSHIP and Robbins Bros., World's Biggest Engagement Ring Store[c], announce the "After I Do" Jewelry Contest. The best proposal story...

Family matters: we vowed to respect each other's space. Then my brother-in-law moved in.(Starting out: what I wish someone had told me)
June 22, 2004... Before our wedding, Eric and I clung to the mantra, "nothing will change." We'd dated long enough that we were sure we knew everything about each other. We didn't bother with premarital counseling, and I can't remember a conversation about our...

He spoils his kids.(Couple Counsel)
June 22, 2004... Q. Help! This is my first marriage but my husband's second. He feels so guilty about his divorce that he spoils his children--they get whatever they want, whenever they want, with no boundaries. I feel as though they take first place in his...

Must see TV? When their viewing habits caused conflict, Daniel and Angela Darling realized they needed to come up with a "TV guide.".(Work it out: real couples, real solutions)
June 22, 2004... Angela's Side: He watches too much TV! It seems as if every night the first thing Dan wants to do after work is plop in front of the TV, remote in hand, and settle in for the evening. I feel as if it doesn't even matter if I'm there or...

Poisonous putdowns: harsh words can destroy your marriage. Here's how to defuse verbal abuse.(24/7: doing marriage God's way)
June 22, 2004... He makes me feel stupid. Like I can't do things right." "She talks so condescendingly to me in front of others." Physical abuse in marriage is devastating. But verbal abuse--putdowns, blame, harsh or bitter words, profanity--can be just...

Unforgiven: the only antidote to bitterness was something I didn't feel like doing.(Soul to soul: where faith and marriage meet)
June 22, 2004... "I need to talk to you," my husband said. I was resting comfortably in our bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed, and I knew from his serious look that something was terribly wrong. My heart began to pound, and I feared some tragedy had taken...

The romance factor: use all five senses to connect with your spouse.
June 22, 2004... Remember when you and your spouse were dating? When dinner was consumed to the strains of soft music instead of to Sponge Bob? In the day to day busyness of married life, romance is often the first thing to go. Yet the "Romance Factor" can have...

What fighting about money will cost you: tips to keep you out of the red.
June 22, 2004... Most couples, when asked if they argue about money, will reply, "We really don't fight about money, we just have occasional disagreements." Yeah, right. When my husband, Bob, and I were newly married he (the born spender) went into an...

The purpose--driven marriage: use these five biblical purposes to give direction to your marriage.(Faith: a marriage revolution)
June 22, 2004... IN HIS BOOK What's Wrong with the World, G. K. Chesterton summed it up well: "If we wish to preserve the the family, we must revolutionize the nation." In this exclusive series, we explore seven distinct pillars of Christian marriage. Living by...

A firm foundation: with God in control, your marriage can thrive.
June 22, 2004... A good marriage isn't necessarily an easy marriage. Take, for example, our friends Dan and Debbie. They fell desperately in love during high school and got married in college. The intoxication of young love was intense, but so was the hangover...

Loaded question? Asking it could make your marriage dynamite!
June 22, 2004... With one question I opened Pandora's Box, "What, if anything," I asked my husband, "could I change about me to make you happier?" It wasn't that we were unhappy or that I perceived he was unhappy. But after nearly 95 years together, it...

Married ... with passion: why a good sex life is worth forethought as well as foreplay.
June 22, 2004... Think about it: 90 percent of life is filled with mundane tasks, such as changing dirty diapers, cleaning up countless spills, paying the bills, going to the grocery store, filling the gas tank. And many men and women have financial obligations...

Can we talk? 7 tips to get your spouse to open up.
June 22, 2004... When we were dating and early in our marriage, Steve and I talked for hours, sometimes late into the night. As the years passed, however, he backed off. And when we did talk, we ended up arguing, or it seemed he tried to keep conversations...

We never loved each other: we never even really liked each other. How would our marriage last?(Back from the Brink: true story of how a marriage saved)
June 22, 2004... We never set out to be wrong for each other. When Pete * and I married, however, we couldn't have been more incompatible. We met at church. I found Pete attractive, and I admired his love for God. But I soon found that he could be loud and...

Sex during pregnancy.(Real Sex)
June 22, 2004... Q. Is sex during pregnancy okay? I don't want to hurt our baby. What's appropriate, and what do the Scriptures say? A. As far as we know, the Scriptures don't mention sex during pregnancy. The simple answer medically is that if your...

A time to laugh: why having fun keeps the joy in our marriage.(Ever after: marriage for a lifetime)
June 22, 2004... I'm married to a joker. Greg can see the funny side of anything, even in the dead of night, or when disaster strikes. He's always playing practical jokes on me. So I was delighted the day I finally got "pay back." My plan was simple: hide...