Love & Respect
Make Marriage Happen

Well, this week marks the beginning of June and I am going to try my best to keep the Make Marriage Happen series going.

I’m going to combine my topics for May and June into one month. For the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing two necessities for marriage: love and respect. One of the best marriage conferences I ever attended was the Love & Respect Conference. Not only is the speaker, Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, extremely funny, but the advice he gives is so practical. I actually have the DVDs and have been thinking about going through them again. Would anyone be interested in joining us? It’s always encouraging to do it with others. I believe it would be a 5-week series, just throwing that out there to see if there’s an interest.

While we all need love and respect equally, Emerson lays out a great amount of research showing that the felt need differs between men and women during conflict. Vitaliy and I can definitely see the difference in our own relationship. So, I’ll be sharing how this plays out in our own marriage and hope you find it encouraging for your own.

Until then, I want to leave you with one last thought to ponder. We had guest speakers at church on Sunday, Jeff and Stacy Kemp. Jeff is Vice President with FamilyLife and HomeBuilder Catalyst. Together, they often speak at Family Life’s A Weekend to Remember, a marriage retreat that I have always heard is phenomenal. They shared a ton of great things, but I took note of one small thing I thought was worth pondering on. He gave an example of a friend of his that wrote a question on his mirror to remind himself to better love his wife each day. The question was this, “Would I want to be married to me?” I cannot think of a more convicting question to ask myself for accountability in my own marriage. So, what do you think? Would you want to be married to you? When I ask myself that question, I have a few things that I know I need to change ASAP. Perhaps, writing that down on a sticky note will give you the kick in the pants you might need to better love or respect your spouse this week.

Let’s Make Marriage Happen! Together.

Couple walking on the Kobylianska street in Chernivtsi