Passion, Death, and Resurrection in Marriage

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 is there’s often a delay before the resurrection manifests. That ‘waiting in the tomb’ is profoundly challenging; in our case it’s never just three days! Here are three thoughts about…

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Two Sides to Relationship Repair

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, even for newlyweds. It might have been the result of a hurtful action, a careless comment, an argument, or just insufficient time together. We’ve written about a number of disconnection…

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Defending our hearts

Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

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 a new idea with Francine. Instead of encouragement, Francine responded with “when will you get time to do that?!” The conversation immediately terminated in gloomy withdrawal. Afterwards we unpacked the…

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The Bethlehem Prayer

Night sky over sand dunes

Through an imaginative encounter with the Holy Family at Bethlehem, God offers consolation and healing for our Family of Origin wounds. It’s very normal when exploring our Family of Origin to surface some pain or hurt.  This might express itself in a sense of loss at what could have been, or a sense of not…

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Trigger warning: there’s a landmine below

Over the previous columns we have been exploring how our formation from our family of origin can continue to impact us and our marriage negatively. In this article we want to unpack the third and final way our formation experiences play out – through emotional injuries. Some years ago, Francine purchased a new espresso machine.…

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What is Forgiveness?

Ron & Kathy Feher Interview

Forgiveness is not an emotion – it’s a choice to surrender our case against the other, to lay down our resentment. Ron & Kathy Feher explore the role of forgiveness in marriage.

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Parental Hurts

Ron & Kathy Feher Interview

Ron and Kathy Feher explain how emotional injuries from one’s parents or family of origin can influence our behaviour into our adulthood and impact on our marriage.

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Accessing Supernatural Powers

Jesus promised his disciples to send the Holy Spirit. Two thousand years later, the Holy Spirit is still channelling grace into the hearts of believers. Graham and Jenn were not doing very well. Despite his sincere regret and apology, when Jenn discovered Graham’s sexual indiscretion with a work colleague, she reacted with her own sexual…

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Mercy – a work in progress for couples

We are yet to meet a married couple who have not hurt each other deeply at some stage. Selfishness, laziness, thoughtlessness, anger, carelessness; they all have the potential to inflict deep wounds on the other, sometimes without our knowledge or intention. Unless couples learn the lessons of mercy, these common human frailties can bring a…

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