The Couples Post

Jen: Passion is defined as an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. In my life, I’m passionate about our children – making sure they are loved and supported, helping them become responsible adults. I’m passionate about my work, helping kids develop a love of reading. I’m also passionate about my hobby of quilting, trying to create art through fabric. All of these things fill me with an intense desire and enthusiasm in varying degrees.

Photo Credit:  Peter Boccia on Unsplash
In our last post, we shared with you 50 ways to live an Intentional Marriage.  This week we want to focus on one -- the Power of Affirmation.  The effects of self-affirmation and the power of positive thinking are well know in self-help literature.  Being affirmed by your spouse elevates this power exponentially.  In this post we will talk about what constitutes a good affirmation and why it is so effective, especially in the presence of others.

One of the most challenging things in our marriage was learning to raise responsible, caring, well-adjusted children. Now that our children are adults, we are back to child-rearing mode with our two year old granddaughter who lives with us.  Here are 6 lessons we’ve learned.

You proposed.  She accepted.  White dress, wedding bells.  New house, new bills.  Kids. Jobs. TV. Internet. Full calendar. What happened?  What's next?

We thought our marriage was "fine" but we were focused on running from one kid's sports to the next kid's music lessons.  There wasn't time for those long talks about our future.  Even though we thought the honeymoon would last forever...it didn't.  We were more focused on the kids than on each other.  As the romance faded, we gradually became more aware of each others' flaws.  We lost sight of  who WE were as a couple.