Most Americans will say that forgiveness is important, but when you have something to forgive, it becomes really difficult to do. The way in which you give and extend forgiveness can really shape a relationship. In this podcast, we explore what forgiveness is and isn't, and take you through the process of dealing with deep hurts.

When someone says or does something that drives you crazy, you may be dealing with a hot button issue. In this episode, we discuss insights to help you identify the deeper emotions that get triggered from hot button issues, understand why the issue is so important to you and learn how to resolve the conflict well.

In the last episode, we explored the cultural trends of "hurry sickness" and "affluenza" and their impact on relationships. This week, we discuss 2 more cultural trends that result in highly unrealistic expectations for marriage. Listen to gain practical tips on how to overcome these cultural challenges.

Culture is the backdrop by which we do relationships. For the next 2 podcasts, we're going to tackle what we think are the 4 biggest cultural factors that tend to impact our marriages, families, kids and everybody. Listen to discover how culture influences your quality of interpersonal communication as well as your levels of satisfaction within relationships.

In the last episode, we discovered that marital love must be grounded in friendship, that the ultimate expression of love is unselfishness, and that sexual desire practiced before marriage clouds the ability to evaluate a relationship. Today we continue to discuss three more observations about marital love.

Culture tells us that love is ambiguous or flimsy or can change, and most people fear that their love isn't going to last. Learning how to define what love is, is extremely important, especially if you're moving toward a lasting commitment in marriage. In this episode we discuss criteria for marital love that are crucial for lifelong commitment.