12 Choices for An Extraordinary Marriage (Part Two)
The first year of marriage doesn’t have to be hard. Learn about some intentional choices that can make your marriage extraordinary in Part 2 of this two-part post by Kristen Hogrefe.
12 Choices for an Extraordinary Marriage (Part One)
The first year of marriage doesn’t have to be hard. Learn about some intentional choices that can make your marriage extraordinary in Part 1 of this two-part post by Kristen Hogrefe.
The Love Chapter (Adapted)
1 Corinthians 13* If I speak to my spouse using tactful “I feel” messages and skillful conflict-resolution strategies, but I do not love, I am like a clanging cymbal or a car alarm that won’t shut off. And even if I have an advanced degree in marriage counseling and understand Read more…
21 Myths about Sex
I really didn’t expect this. I recently read an advance copy of 21 Myths (Even Good) Girls Believe about Sex: Pursuing Love with Passion and Truth. I thought I might find some good nuggets of truth to share. I expected to find things that were helpful, factual, Biblical, and much-needed. Read more…
Overcoming the Overwhelming
We make complicated messes. God gives simple instructions. The enemy tries to confuse and bewilder and overwhelm. We try to figure out the tangled, jumbled-up complexities; but with each broken piece we pick up, we become more perplexed. God gives simple instructions. “Humble yourselves.” We Read more…
Love: Just the Basics, Please
I often need to recall the basics. Here are the basics of love, as spoken to us by Love Himself, paraphrased by Eugene Peterson. My favorite line is near the end: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. From “the love chapter” (1 Corinthians 13): Love never gives up. Read more…
The Strength of Joy for Your Marriage
Here is an amazing verse: Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10, NIV) That is not only a command and a statement, but it is also a promise! God is full of love, and He is also full of joy. Not only Read more…
Calibrating the Compass of Your Heart
We tend to think that we love someone when that person attracts us. When we no longer feel attraction, we feel that we no longer have love. We see others as magnetic-like forces with the power to attract or repel us. But are we really helpless magnets compelled to move toward Read more…
Mighty Men in Marriage
Big boys are everywhere, but where are the men? Where are the men who stand taller than passivity? Where are the men who are mighty in marriage? There are such men. There are real men who have the strength to shoulder responsibility, the nobility to keep promises, and the character Read more…
Delight and the Power of Yada (Part 3 of 3)
That the Creator of the universe should desire to know us deeply and to love us in the knowing is amazing. That He should desire that we know Him deeply and love Him in the knowing is staggering. God comes to us with His desire to know when we bring Read more…
Hiding and the Power of Yada (Part 1 of 3)
Rough bark scraped across the man’s bare chest as he rushed to crouch in the gathering darkness of the trees. An unfamiliar sense of guilt threatened to suffocate the man. His frantic attempts to cover himself had failed to ease his shame, just as the thin veil of dusk did Read more…
Seen Any Pictures of Worship Lately?
How can we best understand the essence of worship? There may be no better illustration of spiritual worship than physical marriage. What marriage is between a man and woman is what worship is between God and His people. Although marriage and worship are expressed in and enhanced by activity, both Read more…
To the Husband who Seeks Reconciliation
I salute you! Your heart for reconciliation reveals the very heart of God, and your faithfulness to covenant reflects the faithfulness of God, which “reaches to the skies.” We will break our loyalty to our covenant partners the day God breaks His loyalty to us, His covenant partners. I commend Read more…
1 Corinthians 13: The Marriage Version (with my apologies to King James)
Though I speak to my spouse using diplomatic “I feel” messages and skillful conflict-resolution strategies, but do not love, I am become as sounding brass or as a car alarm that won’t shut off. And though I have an advanced degree in marriage counseling and understand the mysteries of why Read more…
Too busy to pray?
“Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. … Because we are less hectic on the inside, we have a greater capacity to love … and thus to be busy….” (Paul Miller, The Praying Life, p. 23)
Why love people?
In our natural selves, we love people because it blesses us. God loves people because it blesses them. And that delights Him!
