The Family First Podcast is the podcast dedicated to providing truth-filled marriage and parenting advice that helps you love your family and others well.
If someone were to ask you the question: What is the key to intimacy in a marriage? What answers do you think you’ll receive? I can imagine a lot of words that might be racing through your mind. Sexual compatibility. Time. Romance. Open Communication. Compromise. Forgiveness. Kindness. All of those are good answers, but on today’s show, Susan and I would like to suggest that there’s a strong case to be made that TRUST is an important key that unlocks the door to emotional and physical intimacy in marriage. Trust is an essential ingredient in the two of you becoming one flesh. In List 5 of our new books, Lists to Love by for Busy Husbands and Lists to Love by for Busy Wives, we mention “If trust is the door to intimacy, then there are three keys to opening that door.”
The post #135: Trust: The Key to Unlock Intimacy in Marriage appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
NFL athlete and Super Bowl champion Benjamin Watson knows a thing or two about big games. But he says the biggest game in life—parenting, specifically fatherhood—is one for which there is no playbook. Watson shares, "I could find clearer direction for putting together a baby swing than for taking care of a newborn child,”. His new book, The New Dad’s Playbook: Gearing Up for the Biggest Game of Your Life solves this problem by sharing parenting tips, wisdom and practical advice for new dads.
The post #134: The New Dad’s Playbook with Benjamin Watson (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
What is the opposite of love? If you said hate, well, I hate to disagree with you, but I’m convinced that the opposite of love is really selfishness. And in marriage, selfishness often makes you the worst threat to your marriage and can become the root cause of your marriage problems.
The post #133: Is This the Root Cause of Your Marriage Problems? (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
You and your spouse are allies, not enemies. We must fight for our marriage because we love. We must fight for who we love. We must make war to make love last in marriage. Make war against those things that could divide our union. Fight for those things that will protect and preserve our union. Make love our highest priority as we pursue a selfless, sacrificial, and more perfect union. Here are 4 ways to fight for your marriage
The post #132: 4 Ways to Fight for Your Marriage (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
When I got married…I didn’t expect conflict, financial pressures, or challenges with children. I always thought the tough part about marriage was finding the right girl. I thought that once I found her, being married was the easy part. When I said my vows I EXPECTED it would always be better. I never EXPECTED that there would be a worse. And there was…
The post #131: You Married for Better, but What about for Worse? (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
Busyness is a thief that steals meaningful time and lasting memories. Creating a relationship bucket list will be helpful; it will work in all phases of your life and all relationships. Being INTENTIONAL is the key to having a strong relationship bucket list.
The post #130: Why You Need a Relationship Bucket List (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
Expectations: It's a huge word in marriage and something that many couples, ourselves included, struggle over. We oftentimes have unfair and unrealistic expectations when we go into marriage or even throughout our marriage. When we were writing our two new books Lists to Love By for Busy Husbands and Lists to Love By for Busy Wives, we found that this was a common denominator that was present in many of the historic blogs as well as current blog posts. People were looking for what should I expect from my husband, what should I expect from my wife, and what should I expect from our marriage. Expectations in marriage could be the biggest threat to your relationship
The post #129 Unfair Expectations You May Have of Your Spouse (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
It's been said that we should never say never in our marriage and we should never use the word always, because, usually, they are unhelpful in navigating through issues or through conflict, but today we are going to talk about things you should always do in your marriage or that you should never do in your marriage. This is a list from our Lists to Love By for Busy Husbands and Lists to Love By for Busy Wives books, and it talks about 7 Must Do's and Don'ts for Your Marriage.
The post #128: 7 Must Do’s and Don’ts for Your Marriage (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
Today we have an exciting show because we are going to be talking about things that spouses wish the other knew. In List #8 of our newly released books, Lists to Love By for Busy Husbands and Lists to Love By for Busy Wives we have things wives wish husbands knew and husbands wish wives knew. We wish for our spouses to know our heart. We both learned that knowing what your spouse desires is key to investing your time wisely and getting the greatest return for your marriage. We will share a few of those today.
The post #127: 5 Things Husbands and Wives Wish the Other Knew (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
Susan and I recently released our new books, Lists to Love By for Busy Husbands and Lists to Love By for Busy Wives and we both felt it very necessary to have our first list in both of our books be about truths. For today’s podcast, we will share with you 7 truths about marriage that we have come to know to keep us grounded and have become particularly important when we experience rough patches in our relationship.
The post #126: 7 Truths About Marriage (Podcast) appeared first on Mark Merrill's Blog.
