Tag: marriage
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Assaulted with Assumption: 5 Marital Assumptions to Deal With

It only took me 5 or so years, but I discovered that Anne wasn’t the biggest fan of flowers. It’s not that she doesn’t like them (she confirmed she did), but they didn’t speak to her ANYTHING close to what I thought they were communicating. Through dating and into marriage, I had been buying them…
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Happy wife… Miserable husband: 6 Reasons Why Appeasement Doesn’t Work

You’ve said it, I’ve said it: Happy wife…happy life. Call it nice. Call it sweet. I call it appeasement. It’s a conflict avoidance style that sacrifices your feelings, beliefs, or ideas in order to pacify or please the other person. To some, this seems like a noble identity to assume. After all, keeping peace and harmony in the…
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Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad: 42 lessons they taught me about parenting.

I often get asked about when my passion for marriage began. It began with my parents, Hal and Linda Barringer. Watching their marriage not only made me want what they had, but shaped the marriage I have. Don’t get me wrong, as they’ll tell you, they are by no means the model of perfection (ever seen…
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Say No to Venting: 6 Ways to Appropriately Deal with Marital Frustrations.

I’m a pro social media guy. If you follow me, you know I post just about everything. I try to keep most of my tweets/posts about things that are edifying or of comedic value. But as you well know, social media is a breeding ground for venting. One my personal pet peeves on social media is…
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Razor Sharp: 6 Ways to keep your marriage sharp

From the beginning of this, please note something: Marriage is hard work. In saying that, I want to pose a question: Are we working too hard on our marriage? Before you fire off emails, posts, rebuttals, etc at me, I want to work out a thought that came out the other day. It stemmed from a simple saying:…
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Self-Hurting Marriage: 7 Things we do every day that are actually hurting our marriage.

Something I learned a long time ago, when it came to my body, I was eating what I wanted and doing what I wanted not worried about the physical outcome. It lead to an unhealthy lifestyle that, because of an accident, empowered my doctor to give me some sobering news that changes needed to happen.…
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Anniversary Thoughts: 17 marriage thoughts for each year of marriage

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 23rd…I’ll celebrate 17 years of marriage to my best friend. So I thought I’d share 1 thought per year we’ve been married. 17 thoughts about marriage that I’ve gathered over 17 years… 1. Be a spouse that admits you fall short of being perfect but excels in love for Jesus. We couldn’t ask for more…
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Highly Valued: 10 Thoughts for Pastor’s Wives

At one of the most difficult points of my life, I found myself crushed under the weight of ministry. Depression mixed with ministry pressures caused me to want to cash it all in. I went to Anne and let her know I couldn’t take it any longer. I needed to resign and, perhaps, find another…
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Touch Your Own Bride: 5 Questions for Pastors and Their Marriages

I’m trying to get back to my “normal routine.” A month of a literal blur of a schedule has left me clutching my coffee and pondering the thoughts that have been jotted down from services and meetings. One in particular hasn’t let go of my mind. Pastor Wilfredo De Jesús, better known as Pastor Choco, is the head…
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My Marriage is Full of Crap; 5 ways to make fertilizer for the future

From the get-go, let me say this: Storms don’t discriminate. They’re equal opportunity givers. Like the word “crap” or not. Every one of us have that/a word we utilize to describe a moment that didn’t suit us. It could encapsulate an entire event or the immediate feeling about the situation. We all have our “word.” You may be…