What a year it’s been! We continue to be humbled that folks like reading our stuff and would actually share our posts with friends. This year, we’ve seen several of our pieces gain an audience and more delightfully, we’ve had the blessing of hearing from and having dialogues with our readers – some of whom we’ve never met.
As we end off 2013, we’ve rounded up our favourite posts from this year. Enjoy!
Tim’s Favourite Posts from 2013
Why Saying “Marriage Isn’t For You” is Naive
This was probably the most controversial post I’ve ever written, and the one that went the most viral for us this year. We’ve gotten 30,000 views on our blog, plus many more on Converge Magazine (which republished the post). A friend asked me to write a response to “Marriage Isn’t For You”, which she thought was a skewed view of what marriage really is. So I wrote this, with the help of Olive. The feedback I got ranged from “I love this and this is a very gracious response” to “This was a waste of my time and you are being too harsh”.
Thoughts as a Depressed Husband (And How My Wife Helped Me Face Depression)
This was one of the most searched blog posts with 200-300 people reading it every week this year. Depression is a subject very close to my heart. In this piece, I reflect back on what I’ve learned while going through depression personally and how my wife helped me walk through those dark times. Recently I heard an excellent TED talk where the author described how the opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality. I have to agree with that statement. I pray that this blog post has been and will continue to be a small encouragement for those going through depression, or those walking with someone with depression.
9 Ways to Cheer Up Your Wife
One of the fun (and challenging) things about marriage is cheering up your spouse. How to cheer up your spouse takes creativity sometimes, but the real challenge is choosing the right time to cheer up your spouse.
What “We” Really Means in Marriage
This is a humourous story that I recount from our first year of marriage.
How Children Succeed: Grit vs IQ
This past year I listened to a TED talk which inspired this blog post. As a new dad, I’m thinking about how I can be the best father to my daughter (and future kids) and what they need the most. This TED talk opened me up to a new way of thinking about how to help my daughter grow and succeed in the future.
Olive’s Favourite Posts from 2013
9 Ways Sex in Real Life is Not like the Movies
Ok, this was not one of my favourite posts, but it did take the most courage for me to write, and it’s definitely one of our reader favourites. The day after releasing it to the world, I suffered what Brené Brown calls a vulnerability hangover. I kept asking myself, “What was I thinking, posting about such an intimate topic?!?!” And that was when about 500 people had read it. To date, it’s had 24,825 views. I try not to think about that fact too much.
How to Live with a Highly Sensitive Person
I wrote this post out of the discovery that there was a term for my tendency to be affected by my environment more than the average person. I thought it might be valuable for other Highly Sensitive People to know that they’re not the only ones out there with these characteristics, but also for those who live with HSPs to see how my wiring affects our marriage relationship. This turned out to be another one of our most searched posts.
An Honest Letter to My Post-Baby Body
Coming to a place of acceptance about my body after having a baby was a difficult process. I wrote this letter as part of my journey to love myself as I am, not as I wish I could be.
One Good Reason to Have a Child
This was one of my deeper lessons this year. I wrote it in response to several friends who asked me why they should consider having a child. Being of deeper nature, it’s one of the more explicitly spiritual pieces I’ve posted.
Why It’s Hard for Me to Announce My Pregnancy
This post came from a tender place in my heart as we prepared to tell the world that we were expecting our second baby. As I thought about announcing it on social media, I knew I had to also address the fact that for some, hearing pregnancy news would surface deep pain. I was surprised at the amount of response I got and the extent to which people resonated with what I said.
Favourite Guest Post from 2013
Courage Is: Answering “Why Aren’t You Married Yet?”
One of our dear friends mustered up the courage to write this blog post early this year. It took a bit of prodding for him to finally write this and we’re glad he wrote it. What he may not have known was how much this post resonated with many people who read it.
photo credit: Simon & His Camera