This Week’s Quick Hits: 

This week as we are enjoying spring and all the new life that comes in that season, let’s look at some quotes on life!

• “A little improvement each day makes a big difference over time.” - Tony Dungy

• “Prayer is the pulse of life.” - Andrew Murray

• “I believe that the ability to remain calm is an essential skill in modern life.” - Rick Mathis, Stay Calm

• “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”- Jesus, Matthew 6:27

• “Life is a question and how we live it is our answer.” - Gary Keller

• “The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye.” - Jimi Hendrix

• “Look for opportunities in every change in your life.” - Meir Liraz, How to Improve Your Leadership and Management Skills

“Our Biggest Marriage Mistakes”

Read, Watch, Listen.

Read: 

Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life & Those You Love by Tony Robbins

I am on my second time through this book.  It has so much information that there was no way I got it all the first time through! I am a health nut of sorts anyway and I love all the advances that are helping us live healthier lives. This book highlights the newest breakthroughs in health technology to help maximize our energy and strength, prevent disease, and extend our health span. Many of the things talked about are in the future but for many of them, the future is not that far off. At times it does seem like an infomercial for the companies Tony is invested in but the fact that he believes in these companies enough to invest in them speaks a lot to me. The book encouraged me to make some needed changes in my lifestyle and I think I am already seeing results.

Watch: 

“Unanswered Prayer”

Have you ever wondered why God answered your prayer differently than you thought He would? Join me in this week’s Awesome Marriage Vlog on YouTube  as I unpack this question.

Listen: 

“Oneness Vs. Codependency - What's the Difference?” With Special Guest Debra Fileta

I am so honored to once again have my good friend and fellow therapist Debra Fileta join us on this week’s podcast. We will discuss how the best relationships are created out of our overflow and not from our emptiness, false beliefs that are harmful to Christian marriages, and much more.  Don’t miss this one!

Insights: 

The (Almost) Post Pandemic Parade

We are beginning to talk about it but there are still so many unanswered questions. We know how to recover from war, depression, recession, and a myriad of other life seasons but this is our first pandemic in modern history. Among the professionals that I talk to and listen to, the consensus is that we are seeing more depression and anxiety.  

Our children and grandchildren were homeschooled, in most cases, by someone who never wanted to be a teacher. Couples often do not accept change well. Working from home for a few weeks was something we all thought we could handle but two years and counting is too long for too many. Then we have people quitting their job just because. 

Instead of sitting on the curb watching this post pandemic parade of woes, let’s join in the parade. Change begins with you and your family. Go over this checklist for yourself, your spouse, your kids, and anyone else living in your home.  

Mental Well Being:

• How are you mentally? Rate on a 1-10 scale with 10 being great.

• Have you experienced, or are you experiencing, any feelings of depression? If yes, when?

• Have you experienced or are you experiencing anxiety? If yes, when?

• Has there been the death of a family member or of a close friend? How has that affected you?

• What is the ratio of negative thoughts to positive thoughts in your mind?

Emotional Well Being:

• What emotion do you experience the most?

• Do your emotions fluctuate? If yes, how often and when?

• Have you lost interest in things that once were important to you?

• Are you easily agitated?

• Do you have feelings of hopelessness? If yes, when?

Physical Well Being:

• Do you feel excessively tired or fatigued? If yes, when and how often?

• Do you have headaches, stomach aches, or body aches? If so, when and how often?

• Are your sleeping habits erratic? 

• Have you had an increase or a decrease in your appetite? Describe what you are experiencing.

• How often are you exercising?

Spiritual Well Being:

• Do you feel you are falling away from God? If yes, when and how?

• Is it difficult for you to see sin for what it is? When we are away from God, we can develop a dull conscience.

• Who are the people currently in your circle of influence? Are these spiritually healthy relationships?

• Do you believe that God has a good plan for your life? Why or why not?

• Are you having a regular time with God every day? Why or why not?

Next Steps:

• Once you go through the questions in each of the four categories, what picture does it paint? Are you healthier than you thought or worse than you thought? With this information, what is your next step? It could be a doctor appointment or a Christian counseling appointment or talking to your pastor or anything else that will help you in the process of your healing.

*Some links are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Every dollar made goes directly to the ministry of Awesome Marriage to help couples build awesome marriages. We only promote products we truly recommend.

This Week’s Quick Hits: 

With 2020 in our rear view mirror, COVID was not the only thing that happened that year. Can you answer these five 2020 pop culture questions?

1. Who performed at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show?

2. Two senior members of the English Royal Family announced that they wished to become financially independent and step back from life in “The Firm.” Who were they?

3. What film won Best Picture and was also the first foreign language film to win this award?

4. What recording star won song of the year, album of the year, and best new artist at the Grammys?

5. What former politician was unmasked on “The Masked Singer” TV show?

Bonus Question: According to the UN, there are 195 countries in the world, but only 10 of them have four letters. Can you name them?!

Is it Selfish to Have Boundaries in Your Marriage?

Listen: 

“5 Money Mistakes Couples Make”

Money and finances seem to be an issue for every couple at some time in their marriage. Join Lindsay and me as we look at common mistakes couples make with their money.

Watch: 

“Best Friends or Best Enemies?”

Have you ever been jealous of your spouse’s success? Sometimes it is difficult to stand in the shadows when your spouse is in the spotlight. Yet part of being a team is rejoicing with each other’s success. Join me in this week’s vlog as I look at how to stay best friends throughout your marriage.

YouVersion:

“Praying Over Your Home”

We have a brand new YouVersion plan! 

What is the best thing you can do for your marriage? Prayer. God is the only one who can ultimately change your hearts and your marriage for the better. Inviting Him to do those things is the best thing you can do for your marriage. Join us as we pray over five areas of your home!

Insights: 

Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 2:2

• In 2017, about 50% of adults living in the United States were married. The all-time high was 72% in 1960. 

• Couples who marry today are most likely to get divorced in the first two years of their marriage or in years five through eight.

• 73% percent of divorced couples say lack of commitment was a contributing factor.

• Baby Boomers are now the age group most likely to divorce.

Those four statistics paint this picture of marriage: Fewer people are marrying. Of those who do marry, a lot of them never make it to their second anniversary. A huge number of couples divorce because the commitment they had on day one somehow vanished. Finally, the group who gave birth to our Gen X population and were their model of marriage are now calling it quits. 

Statistics reflect our culture, and those statistics tell us that marriage is a mess. Every couple that stands at an altar exchanging vows thinks they will be different. Their marriage will go the distance. Their love will never fade. Yet what they think will happen and what really happens is often different. Many of them will one day just be another one of those divorce statistics. Some much sooner than others.

I have looked at marriage statistics for years. I’m an optimistic person so I always hope that the new year will give us some encouraging statistics that marriage is getting better. In some ways it has. There are fewer divorces today than in years past, but there are also fewer marriages. Looking for encouraging information about marriage is like looking for a Babe Ruth rookie baseball card. There are some out there but most of us will never get our hands on one. 

As I counsel couples and watch the marriage culture where I live, I have lots of questions. Why do some couples have awesome marriages while others have train wreck marriages? Did all of the people in train wreck marriages marry the wrong person? Did they just get tired of each other? When their marriage did not meet their expectations, did they begin looking for someone or something else that would? 

As we begin this new series, think about your marriage. Are you positive about your marriage? If not, what needs to change? What is your role in effecting the change? 

God designed marriage to meet certain needs in our lives. When we begin looking for those needs to be met outside of our marriage, we get in trouble. One of the keys to an awesome marriage is turning toward your marriage and not away from it. Turning in may be difficult but the outcome can be everything you dreamed of!

Next Steps:

• How positive are you about your marriage? Use a 1 to 10 scale with 10 being the best. 

• What is one thing you can begin doing today to turn toward your marriage?

Answers Trivia:

1. Jennifer Lopez, Shakira

2. Prince Henry and Meghan Markle

3. Parasite

4. Billie Eilish

5. Sarah Palin

Bonus: Chad, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Mali, Oman, Peru, Togo

This Week’s Quick Hits: 

Easter Celebration Trivia:

1. The first Easter eggs were dyed what color?

2. When Easter eggs were first dyed, it was to represent what?

3. Before 1953, it took how many hours to produce a single marshmallow Peep?

4. Easter Sunday is also called what?

5. How long does it currently take to produce one marshmallow Peep?

6. In countries including Greece, Mexico and Spain, what is burned during Easter bonfires?

7. How many states consider Good Friday a holiday?

“What Does It Mean to Cover Our Spouse’s Vulnerabilities.”

Read. Watch. Listen.

Listen: 

“5 Tips For Healthy Parenting Perspective”

This is the second podcast in this short series on parenting. Join us as we look at how to cultivate a healthy perspective that helps us love our kids well in each season and how we can develop relationships with our kids that continue into their adulthood.  

Watch: 

“Marriage is a Team Sport”

What if we pause a moment and look at our marriage as a team sport? What would it look like for you and your spouse to be on the same team? What would it look like if God was your coach? Don’t miss this week’s featured Awesome Marriage vlog.

Streaming Podcast:

If you were following the podcast that launched last summer titled “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill,” there is a new episode which, ironically, centers on what was going on within the walls of Christianity Today. On March 15th CT released the results of an independent report which outlined institutionally-tolerated sexual harrassment and misconduct along with failures in reporting and monitoring. Some of what CT was exploring at Mars Hill was also happening at CT.  

From my perspective, it is another big reminder that we are all vulnerable to sexual sin. If we think we are not, we let our guard down and when we let our guard down the enemy is right there to tempt us. We can never let our guard down!

Insights: 

Scrolling

A couple of weeks ago, while visiting family in Houston, Nancy and I visited the “Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs” exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  Considered to be one of the greatest Pharaohs of all time, Ramses lived about 1,200 to 1,300 years before Jesus was born. No one knows for sure but the consensus is that Ramses was the Pharoah Moses confronted with releasing God’s people from slavery in Egypt.  

The artifacts in the exhibit were fascinating and their obsession with gold was evident. Gold was considered to be the skin of the gods. My favorite part was a virtual reality tour of Ramses' elaborate tomb led by his favorite wife Queen Nefertari. This massive tomb was a true spectacle. The tradition of burying everything the Pharaoh would need in the afterlife with him fascinated me. There were even baskets where fruit and food were left every day to sustain him.  

The exhibit was fascinating and I love history but there was an eeriness to it. Ramses did not know Jesus. Jesus would not be born for a millennium plus. Yet, Ramses was confronted with the God of the Bible. Ramses could have embraced God instead of rejecting Him and what God told Moses to do. So instead of embracing God and eternal life with Him, Ramses had to create his own afterlife. 

Can you even imagine trying to play God and take care of your own eternity? As we approach Easter, we can have the confidence in eternal life with Jesus because He was willing to lay down His life for each of us. 

You might be wondering, “why did he name this “Insights” Scrolling?”  Well, that same day I was signing up for something online with one of my nephews. We each had to enter our birth year.  What he did in a nanosecond, I didn’t. I had to scroll through the past years to get to my birth year. It was a fairly long scroll! 

As I scrolled past the years, I remembered turning 10, thinkingI had arrived in life. I was now in “double digits” age wise and had eons of time in front of me. Time seemed to be never ending.  Ramses’ “scroll” ended at 90. Here are my takeaways from that weekend in Houston:

• The Bible tells us that life is “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14)

• That is true for all of us.

• Ramses and his people spent years and unbelievable amounts of money preparing for his afterlife.

• Jesus has taken care of our afterlife.

• What really counts in this life is each day. The scroll.

• What are we doing with our life - our scroll?

• Are we serving God and using the gifts He gave us to further His kingdom?

• It is never too late.

• As long as God leaves us here, He has a plan and a purpose for us.

So this weekend rejoice with Christians around the world as we celebrate a risen Christ. Celebrate a God that loves you more than you can ever comprehend. Celebrate that God does indeed have a perfect plan for your “scroll.”

Next Steps:

Pray for God to use you to further His kingdom day after day after day!

Answers Trivia:

1. Red

2. The blood of Jesus Christ

3. 27 hours

4. Resurrection Day

5. Six minutes

6. Effigies of Judas

7. 12