The Epic Battle in Every Marriage

By Francine & Byron Pirola | April 12, 2024

If there is one thing that the seasons of Lent and Easter bring into focus, it’s the struggle between good and evil. At its heart,…

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Finding Our Way to Heaven

By Francine & Byron Pirola | April 5, 2024

We’ve been listening to Mike and Alicia Hernon’s podcast called Messy Families. One of their recurring messages for parents is: stop worrying about getting your…

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Passion, Death, and Resurrection in Marriage

By Francine & Byron Pirola | March 29, 2024

Every marriage has elements of passion, death, and resurrection. These seasons of growth, disillusionment and revitalisation are entirely normal, and to be expected. The problem…

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Being God’s presence to those we Accompany

By Francine & Byron Pirola | March 22, 2024

Pope Francis has called Catholic communities to accompany couples at various stages. What does accompaniment look like, and is there anything special about a Catholic…

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Hear Me, Touch Me, Know Me

By Francine & Byron Pirola | March 15, 2024

In relationships, the word ‘intimacy’ is often used as a euphemism for sex, but this is a very narrow and impoverished view. Some people have…

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Gratitude: The Heart-beat of Love

By Guest Author | March 8, 2024

New research validates age-old wisdom: the simple habit of gratitude can transform a jaded marriage into a joyous encounter. By Marilyn Rodrigues A University of…

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Two Sides to Relationship Repair

By Francine & Byron Pirola | March 1, 2024

Periods of disconnection are an unfortunate part of every marriage. Relationship Repair takes both an initiator and receiver. Disconnection has happened frequently in our marriage,…

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Three Ways to a Resilient Marriage

By Francine & Byron Pirola | February 23, 2024

We’ve been hearing from many of our SmartLoving leaders around the world looking for help in supporting couples under stress. There’s certainly lots of stress…

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Lent: the ultimate change-maker

By Francine & Byron Pirola | February 16, 2024

Like most people, our optimistic resolutions for the New Year tend to fizzle out before the end of January. Thankfully, Lent gives us another, and…

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Stonewalling: A Silent Killer in Marriage

By Francine & Byron Pirola | February 9, 2024

Stonewalling – aka ‘the silent treatment’ – is common in many marriages. Never helpful and poorly understood, we ignore it at our risk. Stonewalling is…

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How Expectations Set Us Up for Trouble

By Francine & Byron Pirola | February 2, 2024

When we look back on our early romance, we note how quick we were to trust each other, even recklessly so. We dived into the…

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Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

Defending our hearts

By Francine & Byron Pirola | January 26, 2024

Is defensiveness crippling your relationship? Do you feel regularly on edge, reactive and punchy? Read on for our process for managing defensiveness. Recently, Byron shared…

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#21 Beyond Feelings

By Francine & Byron Pirola | January 19, 2024

The world of feelings is vitally important to life and relationships. But what does current research and best practice tell us about how to understand…

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Kiss to Connect

By Francine & Byron Pirola | January 12, 2024

Many couples find the excitement of sex somewhat diminished within a few years of marriage. Their physical intimacy seems somehow perfunctory, unimaginative, even boring. Soon…

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Resolutions to Have and to Hold

By Francine & Byron Pirola | December 29, 2023

It’s a new year, a new decade and a new beginning. Among all the goal setting, consider what you can do to transform your marriage.…

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