Everyone gets married hoping for closeness and intimacy—a sense that the two really have become one. Readers of faith will recognize that “one-ness” is the description of what God designed marriage to be. (See, for example, Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, and Ephesians 5:31.) Yet some couples find themselves—either immediately or years down the road—feeling like…
Want to be closer to your spouse? The thing that feels riskiest—vulnerability—is one of the most important moves you can make. And this week we tackle the million-dollar question. How? We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, let’s quickly revisit last week’s Part 1 blog on this topic, which illustrated how powerful vulnerability…
After more than two decades of research, surveys, and interviews with close to 50,000 people, I will go out on a limb and say there is one “relationship superpower” that most people would never see as a superpower: a willingness to be completely vulnerable in our most important relationships. And as you will see from…
Carissa is a sweet and social high school student who volunteers in the church nursery, gets good grades, and is respectful to adults. She occasionally gets stressed by homework or disagreeing with mom and dad about house rules, but she usually goes for a drive and comes back chatty and carefree. At first, Carissa’s parents…
Every two years, roughly 7,000 counselors, pastors, coaches, and other leaders come together for the World Conference of the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) in Nashville. They spend the week absorbing plenary talks and worship times, learning from hundreds of continuing education workshops and speakers, exploring more than 100 exhibitors’ booths, and making connections…
Have you ever had to turn someone away? Maybe you’re an event planner with a wait list to a sold-out event. It could be that you’re a service manager, and you have to tell a customer it will be a week or more before a technician can fix their broken HVAC unit or their dryer…