We just celebrated our 41st anniversary this past Sunday, December 29. Even after all these years, there is a habit we've been practicing to keep our marriage fresh and satisfying. Daily. In the morning. On our living room couch. We consider it crucial to our connection, communication and sense of marriage purpose.
Don't get us wrong, we've messed up quite often the past four decades, but doing this habit daily since March, 1990 has been a game-changer for us. Are you wondering what it is?
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By Kermit Rowe
(Kermit is a relationship facilitator with Encompass) There’s no denying it … the holiday rush has kicked into high gear. Finishing the shopping and baking, the decoration hanging and last-second plan-making. Lots of “-ings” but not lots of time left to be “finish-ing” them. What’s a person to do? Or for the purposes of this post, what’s a couple to do? While checking our list twice, we do well to ask ourselves who should be at the top of that list. By Lavern Nissley
How do you respond when someone you’ve just met remembers your name and uses it multiple times in your first exchange? How is your impression of that person different from one who refers to you in more generic terms like friend, sister or bud? Is the effort and concentration required to learn people's names worth it? By Abby Glaser
I read a fantastic article this week addressing how to talk to someone experiencing crisis. I encourage you to read the whole article. It explains something called “Ring Theory”. By Lavern Nissley
Ronda and I are facilitating relationship skills training in Costa Rica with 36 students preparing for missions and service outreach in Central America. A unique aspect of this training is that all of our sessions are needing to be interpreted into Spanish, as about half of the students understand limited English. It got us thinking about how often we might benefit from an interpreter, even while speaking the same language! There are at least 3 signs of communication confusion. |
HostsLavern & Ronda Nissley are co-directors of Encompass. Married since 1978, both enjoy coffee, riding their tandem bicycle and working together to build strong relationships. TOPICS
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