Couples Counseling

When you are married, it is easy for the relationship to get stagnant and it can be difficult to come up with date ideas. After a while, you can feel like you are just going through the motions. Adult life can get you carried away in the busyness of day-to-day life. Stress and pressures of work, chores, homework with the kids, and other family responsibilities can sap energy and motivation. With these realities in mind, it becomes important for a married couple to be intentional about spending uninterrupted quality time together away from these distractions. By spending time together, you are both reminded why you fell in love with your spouse in the first place. Coming up with date ideas and spending time together also allows you to rekindle your romance and revive intimacy in your relationship. As a married couple, you need to prioritize going on regular dates to strengthen your marital bond, as well as the emotional connection. By prioritizing dates, you intentionally disrupt the seemingly routine nature of marriage. This allows you and your spouse to create time to pursue other interests together. It is not uncommon to hear people describing their marriage as monotonous or routine. Marriage doesn’t need to be boring, neither should it start to feel like a chore. 4 Date Ideas for Married Couples If you don’t intentionally and consistently spend quality time with your spouse, they might start feeling neglected or disconnected from you. Dates for married people are an important investment that can have positive and lasting benefits for a couple. Explore these four date ideas for married couples. See if there is something you are interested in trying out with your spouse. Outdoor adventure There is something liberating and rejuvenating about the outdoors. It provides a much-needed break from [...]

When it comes to marriage you often fail to think about boundaries. You forget to be mindful of those small things that can make a difference in the dynamic of your marriage. Boundaries in marriage do not have to be authoritative. They simply have to define the expectation of acceptable behavior. What are healthy boundaries? Healthy boundaries are those that will protect your marriage but are not controlling in nature. They are essential in maintaining a marriage that will be the cornerstone of the family. Boundaries in marriage keep you from following the sinful nature of your flesh. Boundaries protect spouses, kids, and others. The first thing that every marriage needs to set healthy boundaries is godly love. Love that includes mercy and grace. Unconditional love. Not a love that is controlling or jealous. When you base your marriage on the love that God shows you then you will have a foundation that can uphold the boundaries that are healthy for marriages. Admire each other not others There is no way to keep you and your spouse away from other people. You need vacations. Date nights are more fun when you experience them doing something apart from everyday life. But sometimes these places can cause you to have your attention drawn away from your spouse. Human nature causes you to notice other people. The danger of taking too much notice can be avoided by learning how to keep yourself and your spouse out of those situations. Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. – Hebrews 13:4, NIV Understand happiness and freedom When it comes to happiness you cannot hold each other responsible for the amount of happiness you experience. You have to choose [...]

Relationships are key to our well-being and flourishing. When our relationships are going great, our lives feel full, bursting with vitality, and it’s quite likely that we can face challenges with confidence. However, if things aren’t going so well in our relationships, it can affect everything else in our lives. This is especially true of a toxic marriage. If you have a tiff with your spouse at home in the morning, that can distract you all day while you’re at work, affecting your focus and productivity. But if your support structure is thriving, you can face and tackle even tough situations with gusto. We are, at our core, relational creatures. As bearers of God’s image, love and relationship are key to who we are (Genesis 1: 26-27; 1 John 4:16). In a marriage, you are at your most vulnerable; your spouse is the person who knows you through and through. They’ve seen you in your moments of exultation and triumph, but they’ve also seen you at your lowest moments of failure and shame. They’ve seen you naked – in all senses of that word – and their voice carries weight in ways that other peoples don’t. It’s no wonder then that Mike Mason, author of The Mystery Of Marriage, wrote that “there is nothing in the world worse than a bad marriage, and at the same time nothing better than a good one.” (Mason) The shape of a healthy marriage. When a marriage is good, it buoys you up in ways no other relationship can. A healthy marriage has several features that set it apart including: You are seen and heard. The world is a cacophonous jumble, and our voices often get lost in the swirl of competing voices that also desire attention. We often find ourselves trying to [...]