Relationships

Communication, the Daily Temperature of Your Marriage

Winter in South Florida is likened to paradise: a refreshing temperature of Sunny and 72, a cool breeze that caresses our face and sunshine that captures the colorful splendor of creation in high definition. Fall in South Florida is very different: sweltering heat, the air is thick, the breeze is still and the sky is more white than blue. The temperature often determines our mood, clothing, activities and even what we eat. Think about it… a bowl of chili is less appetizing in the heat of summer.  Like the weather, our marriage has a relational temperature that determines mood, appetites […]

-Read More


Maintaining Marital Satisfaction Through the Seasons and Stages of Life

I was recently blessed to renew a friendship from 40 years ago. Some of my most hilarious moments were with this person, but over the years we had lost touch with bits of news from mutual friends. I was looking forward to connecting personally, but I needed to see a pic on social media to recognize them. I called their name, and even then, I wasn’t sure it was them. I looked at them, searching for the face, eyes or smile I knew so well decades earlier. Not even a glimmer! I was listening for anything that reminded me of […]

-Read More


How Well Do You Know Yourself?

Working with marriages and families over the past twenty-plus years has been illuminating for me. I’ve found that most of us don’t know ourselves well. Like others, we know things about ourselves, our favorite colors, our taste in food, where we were born, what we like to do, who we hang out with, what we do for work, and what our talents are, but if someone asks us what our core beliefs and values are, we might have to pause.  As a Christian, I could answer without hesitation that I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, born of […]

-Read More


Multiple Marriages with the Same Person

Marriage relationships expand, contract, ebb, and flow with seasons of joy and pain. It brings out the best and worst in us. It exposes our weaknesses and our strengths. It matures and refines us. As we age and transition within the stages of life, our marriages evolve. The person we married in our younger years may not have the same carefree and adventurous spirit after children, but they may have grown in kindness and patience. Let’s look at some of the stages of marriage. Some scholars say there are many more stages than I’ve mentioned, but I consider these primary.  […]

-Read More


Marriage and Money

The ministry of marriage and families allows us to share the best and worst times with couples. Typically, most couples experience the same challenges framed through different stories, but what is increasingly common is the lack of pre-marital counseling/ preparation. Couples tend to believe they know one another well and are madly in love and don’t have the foresight to pursue a class, program, or counselor to walk them through what needs to be addressed after the honeymoon living. Couples are often distressed because they didn’t have meaningful conversations before marriage. Money is in the top ten issues of couples […]

-Read More


In-Betweens

Sunsets make you think it’s the end of one thing and the beginning of another; it’s an in-between. I’ve been thinking of late about the in-betweens in our lives. The more I think about it the more I realize that our lives are littered with in-betweens. I also realize that there are different types of in-betweens, some more significant than others. Perhaps you have found yourself in an in-between. Have you ever been in-between a job, a career or a relationship?  Perhaps you have found yourself traveling and were in-between cities or even continents. In-betweens bring with them a whole […]

-Read More


Good News Wants to Know… What skill would you like to learn?

Studies show that being a lifelong learner can benefit your mind, career, mental health and social life, but it also takes some investment of time and resources. This month, Good News Wants to Know… If you could learn one skill instantly, what would it be? If I could Learn one skill instantly I would like to learn how to JUGGLE. I JUGGLE a handful of things on any given day (which I’m sure most of us do). If I could actually learn how to JUGGLE without dropping anything, I believe that would be a great skill to have, LOL. Also in Children’s Ministry, […]

-Read More


What Are You Saying?

We’ve all heard and spoken the idiom “Actions Speak Louder than Words.” Its origins are traced back as early as 1200 in a sermon by St. Anthony of Padua, and it continues to be a popular sermon in the Catholic church during Pentecost. The essence of the sermon is that the person filled with the Holy Spirit speaks different languages in the way we witness for Christ. In some moments we speak with humility and patience because we reveal ourselves through the fruit of the spirits or lack thereof. The sermon goes on to say that we are cursed just […]

-Read More


Good News Wants to Know…Fun Facts

To bring our village together, we’d like you to get to know some of our business and community leaders of faith in a more personal way. That’s why we encourage the kind of conversations you might have with a friend at a casual backyard barbecue. This month, Good News Wants to Know… What is a fun fact about you that others may be surprised to learn? I’m sure this will make for some texts and emails: I was co-captain of the wrestling team in high school. William “Bill” C. Davell, Director, Tripp Scott PA I don’t like or trust animals that are incapable of smiling. […]

-Read More


The Known and Unknown Sower

As many of you know, I don’t consider myself a writer, so every month I ask God to show me what He wants me to write about. I always need Him to show me because I don’t have chapters of quality thoughts rolling around in my head. This was particularly true for me this month. He responded with the same message, the Sower of Seeds.   A simple invitation Live the Life South Florida hosted our Happy & Together Hoedown this past weekend, and at the end of the evening, someone spoke up about the number of people the ministry […]

-Read More