In Sickness & In Health: Insights for Caregiving Couples
In a caregiving situation in marriage, your love can be nurtured—despite the added responsibility—if you each choose to extend God’s love and tender-loving care to each other.
In a caregiving situation in marriage, your love can be nurtured—despite the added responsibility—if you each choose to extend God’s love and tender-loving care to each other.
Boredom can be a nail in the coffin of your love. People with marriage on the rocks often say, “We just drifted apart.” If you drifted apart, then that means you can drift back together! Often all it takes is a little TLC, Tender Loving Care—or as we recommend:
According to the Journal of Marriage and Family in 2012, poor communication was reported as the number one reason for marital dissatisfaction by 65% of surveyed couples.
Look around and see who holds hands, who acts kind to one another, who opens the door, who prays for one another or for other couples.
LIFE IS MUCH EASIER WHEN YOU HAVE SOME HELP FROM THOSE WHO ARE FURTHER ALONG THE
TRAIL.
Their wisdom and insight will prove to be invaluable in your own journey together. Mentoring is becoming even more important as much of the population today comes from homes that experienced some kind of fractured family.
You may have never lived with both a mother and a father. How are you supposed to know what an intact family looks like? Who is going to model for you how to work through conflict if your own parents decided to abandon their marriage?
Look for a couple who has the love that you’d like to have. We have experienced many mentors: Bill and Tina, who equipped us while we were dating and engaged; Tom and Barbara, a couple we lived with to save to go to seminary and who simply modeled the daily habits that build a long-lasting love; Jim and Sally Conway, professors and authors who equipped us to balance marriage and ministry.
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by Pam Farrel @PamFarrel in Leading Hearts Magazine
MINISTRY CAN BE DEMANDING ON OUR BODIES: THE CONSTANT PUSH TO MEET DEADLINES, THE RUSHING AROUND TO HELP PEOPLE, THE CONSTANT MEETINGS OVER.
My husband had been the picture of health; then suddenly his blood pressure went through the roof. This got our attention because his grandfather died of a stroke at age 47 and his father had a stroke that left him paralyzed and disabled at age 48. Bill was 45. The super productive husband I had known was going to bed at 6 p.m. and still seemed exhausted the next day. The doctors were baffled by his erratic BP.
At the time, Bill and I had achieved some measure of success as writers. Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti had hit the best sellers list. Bill was also the senior pastor of the largest church in our city, and we were completing a new building project. In addition, all our sons were teens with full schedules that impacted Bill. too.