Empty Nesters
SmartLoving – Members Content
Loving the way my fiancé likes to be loved Every person experiences love in a unique way. Some gestures of love will more powerfully communicate love to you than others. For example, some people feel close and connected when they can physically touch the other person. Others demonstrate love through words of affirmation or affection,…
Read MoreLove as Gift – Members Content
In our culture, ‘love’ is generally seen to be an ‘emotion’. We fall into love and we fall out of it. Love is something that just happens to us; we can’t help falling in and out of love. In fact, ‘love’ is a choice. True love is a conscious, deliberate choice to make a gift…
Read MoreTo Cherish and Respect – Members Content
Each of you, however, should love [agape] his wife as himself, and let every wife respect her husband. Eph 5:33 When St Paul wrote these words 2000 years ago he was keenly aware of the differences between the sexes and so he deliberately gave husbands and wives different instructions on how to live a successful…
Read MoreIn the Image of God – Members Content
Created Male & Female Our masculinity and femininity are completely integrated with our personhood. They are stamped into our spirituality, hard-wired into our brains, ingrained in our personality and manifested in and through every part of our bodies. “So God created humankind in his image” Gen 1:27 To be human, is to be sexual. Our physiological…
Read MoreOn a Mission to Love – Members Content
Every couple wants to avoid divorce and get along without too many fights. A successful marriage however, is much more than just this; it is a life-long union in which both spouses flourish as individuals and enjoy a deep and passionate intimacy. Thinking only in terms of ‘avoiding divorce’ is very limited. It’s rather like…
Read MoreGrowing in Love
The popularity of St Valentine’s Day grew out of the joy of celebrating romantic married love. The celebration also encourages us to renew and develop that love. God is love and this year we focus on one particular aspect of deepening the love of a couple, whether they are engaged or married – that is,…
Read MoreNYE Resolutions
The most vital and satisfying marriages are intentional. This NYE, make a resolution for your marriage.
Read MoreTake Five: Improve your Marriage
Do you feel trapped in a dissatisfying or troubled marriage? Do you feel powerless to ‘fix’ it because your spouse refuses to join you in counselling or a marriage enrichment course? Take heart! There are lots of things a husband or wife can do on their own that can have a dramatic impact. Here…
Read MoreMid-Life Madness and other Stressors
As mid-lifers in the midst of working through some of our ‘issues’, we are acutely aware of how easy it would be to let our individual stuff derail our marriage. It’s normal for a person in midlife to be irritable and volatile. Some react with depressive symptoms, others get angry and aggressive, others withdraw or…
Read MoreThe Language of Love
A sacrament makes visible in a human way something that is invisible or spiritual. In other words, a sacrament images and reveals the mystery of God. Every sacrament has two key aspects which make the sacrament visible: words and gesture. In marriage, the sacramental words are the wedding vows, in effect “I freely give myself…
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