Bret Legg 
I just watched the movie “Saving Mr. Banks.” (Yeah, I’m behind in my movie watching.). The movie is loosely based on the life of P. L. Travers, (author of the Mary Poppins books) and her thorny, combative struggle with Walt Disney over the movie rights to her book.
It was a busy Saturday for my wife and me. We had two celebrations to attend in the same afternoon. One was a wedding, and the other was a celebration of a 50th wedding anniversary. Later that evening, after attending both events, I was thinking about those two marriages. It was like someone had called up marriage on the DVR and then pushed fast forward. From zero to fifty in one afternoon.
Dealing with money and in-laws is a normal part of marriage, but it can be a point of stress and contention in a marriage. Listen in to last week’s Normal Marriage class to learn more.
It was one of those evening when I was in a lousy mood. After watching two episodes of “House” (episodes that seemed to flaunt a lack of commitment in marriage by the way), I got up to take a shower and go to bed.
I was finishing my shower and getting ready to turn off the water when it happened. I slipped, spun around, and went down like Shamoo at Sea World.
What are you afraid of? When I was very young I was afraid of clowns. To this day, I don’t remember why, but I remember the fear. I also was afraid of the dark. (Yeah, I was kind of a wimpy kid.)
No one wants to be afraid, but let’s face it…there’s a lot of things out there to fear. If we’re going to over-come our fear, we must first understand just what is feeding our fear.
We often try to avoid conflict in marriage. Let’s face it…very few people enjoy having a conflict with their spouse. It unpleasant personally and it can make us think there’s something wrong with the marriage. But conflict is a normal and natural part of marriage. In many ways, it can actually be good for a marriage if it’s handled well. Listen to last week’s Normal Marriage Class and learn how to get a little more comfortable with normal conflict.
It was a normal evening, and I had no idea what was about to happen. My daughter was playing on the floor in the living room and I was helping my wife get dinner on the table. I had just put a bake potato on a plate when suddenly it happened.
When we’re growing up and we encounter things beyond our control, we tend to look for someone who is in control. We look for a parent, a teacher, a referee, a police officer…anyone who can exercise some control over our situation. But if that doesn’t work, we head down one of two paths:
If you struggle with communication in marriage, or just want to tweak things a little, listen to this class audio on Normal Communication. It was a great time of laughing and learning together.
In a previous post entitled “As Good As Sex…Almost,” I talked about a valuable lesson learned from riding out an ice storm with my wife. I thought I was done with the ice storm lessons, until a recent walk through the neighborhood revealed debris and damage still remaining from the storm. Then I realized this storm had more to teach me about marriage. Things like…