“I want to be praying for my husband, but I’m not sure where to start.” “I’m not sure if my prayers for my husband are being heard.” “Why should I pray for my husband?” These are common concerns of women who are just learning the power of prayer in marriage. Eight years ago, Alissa Coburn and her husband rarely prayed with or for each other. In this prayer guide, she explains how she became a wife with a daily prayer ritual for her husband and offers us 10 powerful prayers from Scripture that we can pray over our own spouses. My husband stood across from me, weariness resting heavily on ..read more

God’s Word is clear that wives are to respect their husbands and husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. Yet, it is so common in Christian marriages for both spouses to struggle with their respective commands to love and respect because neither come as naturally as we would hope. Many wives also struggle with the notion of respecting their husbands when they don’t feel it has been earned—or worse, trust has been broken, making it that much more difficult. In this article, Aimée Walker shares, through her own journey, how growing in respect for your husband can have a d ..read more

To stand in front of a pastor and friends, boldly declaring we will love and be faithful to one person for the rest of our lives is already a courageous act. Every day after that, though, takes even more courage and dedication as we seek to follow-through on our promise. In this article, marriage ministry leader Alissa Coburn helps us to more deeply understand God’s design for marriage and how we can grow in spiritual maturity when we submit fully to the covenant of marriage and our unique roles within it.  When I finally left my first husband in 2009, after a tumultuous and volatil ..read more

At its core, intimacy in a marriage is about being known. Yet in the midst of life’s day-to-day woes, and in a culture that has perverted the idea of intimacy in every possible way, it’s difficult to know how to get there. In this article, Alissa Coburn shares 5 practical ways you can grow in intimacy with your spouse and 3 ways you can damage it.  When we hear the word ‘intimacy’, our minds often immediately turn to sex. We live in a sex-crazed society, so perhaps that’s no surprise. Intimacy, though—particularly in a marriage—involves so much more than physical intimacy (although ..read more

Caught up in the busyness of life, it can be all too easy to let intentional time with our spouse slide by until we realize that it’s been too long since we’ve had a deep, uninterrupted conversation with them. In this article, Kristin Demery highlights how some intentional planning can help you refocus and reconnect with your husband and shares 52 date night ideas to get you started! Hey, wanna go in the hot tub?” Looking up from my cozy perch on the couch, I survey my husband. Mug in one hand, he runs the other hand through sleep-roughened hair, waiting for my response. It’s 6:23 a.m ..read more

If you’re in the middle of a tough season in your marriage today, know that you are not alone. In Christ there is light and hope and help, and there is no wound He cannot heal. In this article, Alissa Coburn shares encouraging Scripture for a hurting heart and 5 prayers for a broken marriage that have ministered to her personally during her own seasons of struggle and brokenness. About four years ago, my husband Josiah and I drove to Williamsburg to pray over a marriage event and the couples who would be there in one week’s time. Instead though, we fought so hard we couldn’t bring oursel ..read more

Our in-law relationship is a significant one, yet for many married couples, it can be stressful and a source of conflict. In this article, Maria Dyck shares how we can avoid conflict with in laws, and instead navigate this complicated relationship with grace and boundaries, as we seek to appropriately honor the family members God has placed in our lives—even when we disagree. When you marry someone, you also marry their family.” Perhaps you are familiar with this expression, or perhaps it was said to you when you married your husband. Maybe you even anticipated embracing your new family ..read more

Are you expecting too much from your husband? So often, we can allow the expectations we bring to the marriage relationship to dampen our love for our spouse, leading to conflict, disappointment, and feeling unappreciated by our husband. In this article, Maria Dyck shares some principles that helped her and her husband manage expectations in their marriage, including how learning to reframe our expectations as desires can lead to better understanding, gratitude, and appreciation of one another. When I first met my husband, I wasn’t expecting him. I wasn’t expecting love at all in that se ..read more

Has the term ‘helpmeet’ ever grated on you? Perhaps you’ve wondered how to align your desire to be a helpmeet—a loving, godly, submissive wife—with your sharp mind, strong spirit, and various other gifts which don’t seem to fit neatly into the ‘submissive’ box. In this article, Maria Dyck shares how understanding the Hebrew term ‘ezer kenegdo’ helped free her from expectations in her marriage that were more cultural than biblical, and gave her a desire to lean into her identity as a helpmeet, rather than run from it. I hurled the book across the room. What nonsense! At every page I felt ..read more

With marriage feeling so ‘optional’ in our present day culture, how do we communicate its value and significance to our sons? In this article, Michele Morin shares 3 ways we can teach our sons the value of marriage and prepare them to launch into a promising future as a man of character with solid family values. Remember when most households consisted of a married couple and their children? Friends my age who grew up in single parent homes back in the 60s and 70s have confided to me that they felt the weight of their uniqueness. By contrast, statistics reveal that today the proportion of ..read more