When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years! Mark Twain Families are complex and some have caused untold heartache and pain that have rolled down to…

Your spouse is talking to you about their day, your eyes are glued to the TV and you manage to make the occasional grunt… then the phone rings. It’s one of your mates, the conversation flows and you listen to every word they say. Your spouse hears you responding animatedly, showing interest expressing sympathy and enjoying the conversation. The problem many of…

This is the second last of a series in which I’ve looked at seven aspects of building a strong relationship. As a teenager, I was given a Christian book that covered a whole range of subjects but the first chapter was all about sex. The author argued that he dealt with it at the front because most teens would flip to that…

In any relationship you get plenty of opportunities to hurt each other and in a marriage relationship, you get them all the time. Now I do not meet many people who get married with the intention of hurting the person that they claim to love. But I do meet plenty of people in their marriage relationship who have hurt each other. In…

I read recently that marriage represents similar struggles found in a three legged race. It is entirely normal for a couple to have disagreements. Those who make a success of their marriage are those who tackle their problems together and overcome them. What causes disagreements in your marriage? A survey in the UK in 1998 revealed that the number one cause of…

There are plenty of times in a marriage when both husband and wife would feel that they do not feel loved anymore. Have you ever felt that the person you pledged to spend the rest of your life with does not show you any love? I remember a couple who wanted their marriage vows to go something like, “till our love runs…

She wrote: “Our marriage collapsed because we failed to share our real feelings with one another. I began to share my real feelings with my sister and close friends rather than with my husband. It began subtly at first and it began to drive a wedge between us. He wrote: If I had to identify one reason for our separation it would…

We live in such a materialistic world that these days if something does not work, rather than try and fix it we throw it out and buy a new one. Ironically, this is often easier and cheaper to do. As well as this, powerful advertising encourages us to focus on what we do not have rather than being grateful for what we…