Neal and June Black

Marriage: Little Things Add Up

[This is a guest post by Neal Black, who together with his wife June, helped us with premarital counselling to prepare Olive and I for marriage.]

The other day the headlines read “Gold prices set record high”. I am all for investment when it gets me what I want. But if you are like me you didn’t jump on the gold band wagon soon enough and wish you had years ago. So I guess you can call me dumb for not investing sooner.
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How to divide the housework in marriage

How to Divide the Housework in Marriage (Without Killing Each Other)

Housework can be a source of conflict in a relationship, whether it’s with your spouse, siblings, roommate, or whoever you’re living with. When my wife and I got married and started living together, one of the things we had to decide was how to divide the housework. Who would do what? And how would we decide? Though it was fun, playing rock-paper-scissors for who would cook dinner didn’t seem like a long-term solution.
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Hot Off the Press: Our Books Are In Print!

Guess what arrived in the mail today? 

Pre-order Hard Copies of Fight With Me and Then Came The Baby

Olive and I are very excited to announce the arrival of hard copies of our books, Fight With Me and Then Came The Baby! There’s just something very different about holding the actual print copy of a book (compared to reading the ebook version on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone). Even more exciting is that these hard copies are now available for you, our readers!
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Living With a Depressed Husband

What It’s Like to Live with a Depressed Husband

[May 6-12, 2013 is Mental Health Week in Canada. At least 1 in 3 Canadians experience challenges with their mental health each year. To grow empathy for people struggling with mental health and depression (and their families), Tim shared his experience with depression on Monday, and I am sharing my experience as a wife of someone with depression today.]

The first time Tim allowed me to see his depression, I was shocked. We had gotten married in the midst of my own recovery from burnout so I had come into the marriage thinking I was the one who needed mending. I hadn’t realized that he also walked with a limp. He hadn’t really mentioned it while we were dating or engaged (mostly out of fear and partly because he hadn’t come to terms with it himself yet), so when he told me he was fighting depression, and that he had recurring bouts of it, I was surprised.
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Marriage is Messy

Marriage is Messy [An Interview with Jake and Melissa]

[This is an interview I did with Jake and Melissa Kircher, authors of 99 Thoughts on Marriage and Ministry and bloggers at The Holymess of Marriage. They’re also regular contributors at Relevant Magazine.]

1) Why do you describe marriage as a mess?

Because when you get married you have to change. Period. Regardless of race, religion, age, economic status, or anything else. You’re living intimately with another person. Your quirks will annoy them. Your habits will be different than their habits. Your families will have different expectations and ways of doing things. Your pasts will end up being triggers for each other. Your faults will cause pain. Your fears will become tension points. Even your strengths can become areas of friction and jealousy.
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Is Your Marriage a Rental or a Purchase?

Is Your Marriage a Rental or a Purchase?

As I browse the magazines in the checkout line at the grocery I notice that the majority of cover stories are either about celebrities getting married or breaking up. It makes me wonder what the difference is between a marriage that lasts a lifetime, and a marriage that ends because of sickness, poverty, unfaithfulness, falling out of love, or other changes in life. I believe a major contributing factor to a marriage lasting or not is the mentality of the couple going into marriage.
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