Saplings and Sunflowers

I love this quote!  We have been in a bit of a "marriage rut" lately.  This tends to happen at the end of soccer season.  Cars zoom in all different directions and all of a sudden I sit down at the dinner table and realize that my husband has lost five pounds and is growing an afro.  Well, maybe that was just a dinner guest.  I'll have to check next Monday when I see him again... We heard of a couple who were both on second marriages who were given some advice as they were being married.  The advice was that they needed to make each other the top priority.  Nothing should come ahead of their spouse, including the kids.  This is advice that all of us, myself included, would do well to follow. The fact is that I can't think of anything that's better for kids than parents with a happy, stable marriage.  So, why do we put so much effort into fixing up our houses and our yards and buying fancy clothes and devices for our kids when that money might...

  One of us asked our son the other day what we did well in our marriage. He was ten and he paused for a minute. I started to panic as I remembered the many tense moments in our marriage. He then said, “You guys have councils together.” I thought that was interesting. Finally! One thing we do well.  But for me, effective couple council time is an essential part of the glue that keeps our marriage strong. We have made a real effort on Sunday mornings to have a couple council where we talk about problems, goals, and the direction that our family is headed. It’s not always pleasant but it keeps us on the same page. It is honestly one of the highlights of our marital week.  What do we do? We have a regular time for our council. Ours is Sunday morning. We usually have a notebook where we take notes on the council discussion. One of us is the note taker.  We start with a prayer. Involving God is crucial to the success of this time. God helps us see things dif...