Friday Finds: Marriage

I am so excited to have this interlude between our fall Friday bible study concluding and the new Fridays debut in January.  It gives me three weeks just to share what I’m reading from other people on some interesting and diverse blogs.  Today, I’m featuring blog posts about marriage in my Friday Finds.  Next week, I’ll highlight what I’ve found on dreaming big dreams.  And the last Friday before the new year, I’ll focus on the holidays. 

So marriage.  You guys know I write on this every once in a while, but if you’re a married person writing on marriage you have to be careful not to shoot yourself in the foot.  And if you’re unmarried and writing about marriage you probably don’t know what you’re talking about 🙂

Here’s some of my favorite posts I’ve read recently:

Over at Messy Marriages, I read a great post about 10 Not So Helpful Things To Do For My Spouse.  Y’all – are any of you as guilty about this as I am?  The two most convicting to me on her list of 10, though I have done them ALL, were number 2 and 5 – have you done these? 

#2 – When I think that sarcasm is a funny way to get my point (or criticism) across to my hubster.

#5 – When I think I’m getting to the heart of the matter by assuming his motives, instead of just asking him what he meant or did. 

Wow!  I loved this post because it’s true and practical.  It’s great when you take the time to recognize all the goof ball things you do that creates unnecessary marital challenges and then try to stop doing it! 

There’s an incredible blog I just found and don’t know how I’ve missed it before.  It’s Sheila Gregoire’s To Love Honor and Vacuum.  She writes about Christians having good sex.  I am sorry, but this is such a huge need in the Christian community.  No one will talk about sex.  And she does not hold back.  If there’s a topic you’ve wondered about, she’s written about it.  But she also writes about other stuff too, and she just posted a great entry about Creating a Savings Strategy with Your Husband.  I love that she reminds us to always save first and not last.  Bray is so good about that, but I get spendy and am really going to focus on driving that impulse down in 2013 as our costs go up with the kids starting private school in the fall.

There were also some blogs with great reminders and help for women struggling:

Full Heart…Full Home had a great post encouraging us to take time out for date nights with your hubby, especially when you have kids;

Lysa TerKeurst recently wrote to women who have marriages struggling in the clutch of pornography (another topic Christians avoid like the plague) and she wrote a great post over at Incourage about The Good Side of Conflict;

And then I recently used one of my own marriage posts in a link up on a Marriage website, and it reminded me today that I still have to work on talking with Bray with the WHAT not the HOW.

I hope you have a great weekend and enjoy some joyful times with the man you pledged to love til death us do part.