What Makes a Good Marriage Story – Part 6: The Action

(The posts in this series have been adapted from the “Relentless Love” marriage seminar, created and taught by David McKinley and Bret Legg at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.)

If you’ve been following this series from the beginning, you already know about many of the parts of a good marriage story. You know about the author, the characters, the obstacles, and the guide.

But just having the parts of a good marriage story does not magically make the story, anymore than having the ingredients for a good cake magically makes the cake. You have to do something with those parts. You must take action and make the most of what you have if you’re going to make a great marriage story. 

Read more

What Makes a Good Marriage Story – Part 5: The Guide

(The posts in this series have been adapted from the “Relentless Love” marriage seminar, created and taught by David McKinley and Bret Legg at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.)

In this series, we’re looking at your marriage as if it were a story, and hopefully a good story that you and others want to read. We’ve been talking about certain elements that every marriage needs in order to tell a good story. A good marriage story starts with a good author, and two main characters . Then, like any good story, those characters encounter obstacles and struggles that get in the way of what they want.

That leads us to the next element of a good marriage story.  

Read more

What Makes a Good Marriage Story – Part 4: The Obstacles

(The posts in this series have been adapted from the “Relentless Love” marriage seminar, created and taught by David McKinley and Bret Legg at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.)

In this series, we’re looking at your marriage as if it were a story and what goes into making it a good story that you and others want to read. There are certain elements every marriage needs in order to tell a good story, starting with a good author and two main characters who are playing their parts well.

In a good story, the main characters are in pursuit of something they believe will bring them happiness and fulfillment. But that which the characters seek is never easily achieved. Just as they’re about to get what they want, something happens that thwarts their desire. There’s some sort of set back or defeat that puts what they want just out of their reach.

Read more

What Makes a Good Marriage Story – Part 3: The Characters

(The posts in this series have been adapted from the “Relentless Love” marriage seminar, created and taught by David McKinley and Bret Legg at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.)

In this series, we are looking at your marriage as a story and what goes into making that story good.

We looked at the author of your marriage story and how the author determines the direction and the nature of the story. We also asked the question, “Who is the Author of your story?” Is it you? Is it you friends, family, or peers? Is it God, or is it fate?

Now let’s look at the main characters of the marriage story.

Read more

What Makes a Good Marriage Story – Part 2: The Author

(The posts in this series have been adapted from the “Relentless Love” marriage seminar, created and taught by David McKinley and Bret Legg at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.)

What story title would best describes the story of your marriage? Would it be Gone With the Wind? Love Story? The Big ChillAlexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Maybe you can think of another story title that would best describe your marriage.

Read more

What Makes a Good Marriage Story – Part 1

(The posts in this series have been adapted from the “Relentless Love” marriage seminar, created and taught by David McKinley and Bret Legg at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.)

Whether it’s War and Peace or Green Eggs and Ham, everyone loves a good story.  Children ask for them at bedtime, people tell them at work, individuals troll for them on social media, and studios makes billions on them. Everyone loves a good story.

If you think about it, your marriage is a story.

Read more

How To Deal With Interrup…

Everyone gets interrupted. It happens every day.

You start to do something and you get a call from that telemarketer you’re so fond of. You sit down at your computer to begin working and your email begins to ding as if you’ve just hit the jackpot on a slot machine in Vegas.  You’re getting one child ready for school when the other decides that the syrup on their pancakes would be a good medium for finger painting.

Interruptions are also a part of marriage.

Read more

When You Can’t Find the Merry in Christmas

We just put our Christmas decorations up…five days before Christmas! No, we’re not Scrooges and no, this is not typical for us.

We were going to have the decorations up three weeks before Christmas, but that week turned out to be more demanding than we expected. (Don’t they all?) We did stick a naked tree in a stand that week, but that’s as far as we got. Then my wife got sick a few days after that and has been sick ever since. So all we had was a naked tree in a stand five days before Christmas.

Read more

How Do You Decorate Your Marriage?

I have to admit, I have never decorated the outside of our house or our the yard for Christmas. I’m not against it, and I don’t have anything against those that do.

It’s just seems like a lot of work for something you’re going to have to take down in 30 days. Yes – we decorate the inside of the house, and no – I don’t know what the difference is. I could tell you that growing up we never decorated outside, but that sounds like I’m blaming my parents for my laziness and I’m sure there’s probably something wrong with that.

Read more

Marriage is for Losers

-2015“Marriage is for Losers!” This sounds like something some guy in his late teens or early twenties might loudly proclaim at a party with lots of pretty girls and alcohol.  It also sounds like something someone might mumble when walking out of divorce court.

So why would I say something like this? I’m a big believer in marriage. I want to see marriages succeed and thrive. Why would I say, “Marriage is for losers”?

Read more