Today’s episode dives into a discussion about one of the leading marital researchers in the world – John Gottman. We’ve highlighted some of his best research-based tips for happy and healthy marriages and relationships, including the 5:1 ratio, the magic of 5 hours, love maps, and more!

Conflict is inevitable in any close relationship, but there is cause for concern when reoccurring issues foster conflict in marriages. If not addressed, recurring conflicts caused by marital “affairs,” will lead to a decrease in emotional connection, trust and intimacy. Listen to this episode to learn strategies that will help you protect your marriage.

If you have kids, your schedule is most likely filled to the brim with extracurricular activities and sports, and your family is pulled in ten million different directions. Our podcast guests Dave and Ann Wilson of Kensington Church in Detroit, Michigan, share their strategies for determining priorities and developing a mission for raising their kids.

This episode features guests Dave and Ann Wilson of Kensington Church in Detroit, Michigan. Dave and Ann are incredibly transparent and share about how they started dating and also some of the difficulties they had to overcome in their marriage. If you're getting serious in a dating relationship, don't miss their advice on spiritual compatibility. Listen to hear their story and gain insights on how to protect your marriage whether you are in full-time ministry or not.

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.