God is faithful. He promises a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair… and to repay for the years the locusts have eaten.

The rebirth of Brad and Lisa Valencia’s now 22-year marriage could be described no less vividly.

Twelve years ago, it seemed their relationship was dead. Brad had walked away from life with Lisa, leaving her alone with three small children, one just nine months old. Divorce papers had been prepared. Lisa was about to sign, until a phone call from Brad caused her to pause.

He told her he felt God calling him back in forgiveness to the faith and family he’d left.

Pornography. We don’t talk much about it in Christian circles. It’s that dirty little secret hiding behind closed doors and computer screens quietly destroying marriages. The world’s number one site, Pornhub, estimates sixty-four million people click on its link EVERY DAY. Forty million Americans are regular users, and one in three are women.

Pastor and author Nick Stumbo serves as Executive Director of Pure Desire Ministries, the non-profit that helped him find victory over his decades-long struggle with pornography addiction and helps thousands of couples become sexually healthy.

You’ve seen them – men and women sitting in church week after week by themselves. Or maybe that person is you. You may have found Christ after marriage or returned to the faith in which you were raised, but either way – you are pursuing a relationship with God, while your spouse is… not. 

Coach and speaker Lynn Donovan offers wisdom and support to those in a spiritually mismatched marriage. Her work offers hope and help to a Christian learning to be united with their spouse, even when he or she holds very different beliefs.

If you’ve hit your 40th birthday and you’re married, you’ve probably felt the pull of midlife. Maybe it’s the squeeze of taking care of an aging parent and the kids. Or a corporate restructure has jumpstarted early retirement. Perhaps an empty nest has caused you and your spouse to wonder if you even know each other. Any and all of these situations can cause a midlife couple to pause and take inventory of their lives and the state of their marriage.

Dorothy Greco, award-winning photographer, author and speaker, addresses midlife issues and transparently shares lessons learned as she and her husband, Christopher, have navigated the past 33 years of marriage together … and in so doing drawn closer to God and each other.

Author, speaker, podcast host and soon-to-be filmmaker Laura Gallier has created content to address both aspects of sexual relationships through a biblical lens —before and after marriage.

She shares the importance of having a correct mindset about sex-related values in romantic relationships, speaking to thousands of teens about God’s best plan for their purity.

Laura and her husband Patrick offer a streaming course for married couples that opens the door for meaningful conversations and discusses topics that have once been taboo in Christian circles.

You’ve heard the hit, “This is How We Do It.” Everyone’s familiar with the anthem that’s been part of pop culture for the last 25+ years. It’s a ubiquitous favorite, played by the NFL, NBA, in commercials and at weddings and proms — guaranteed to pack the dance floor. The song’s artist/manager duo, Montell and Kristin Jordan, had been married less than a year when the title reached number #1 on the charts. The couple’s rocketing fame almost caused their marriage to disintegrate. They weathered trials and tribulations, and eventually, after two decades of world tours and millions of album sales, they chose marriage over music, faith over fame, and significance over success.

Do you realize that every interaction between you and your spouse is either knitting your hearts closer together or infinitesimally moving them farther apart. Like grains of sand being washed away from an eroding beach, one day you could look up and realize the entire coastline of your marriage has changed. Marriage ministry leaders Jill and Mark Savage named that distancing process the “Slow Fade” after a line in a Casting Crowns song that described the drifting that contributed to what they call the darkest year of their now 40-year marriage.

Most of us recognize the familiar whine of a mosquito. Sometimes, the bloodthirsty pests become so irritating they prevent us from enjoying outdoor activities. Just as the pesky mosquito diminishes the joy of a summer evening, so too, do the “mosquitoes” of distraction suck the life out of a marriage, according to the founders of Marriage Matters Now, Inc., Debbie and Steve Wilson.

Where do you look for answers when married life gets tough? You may not know anyone whose marriage has stood the test of time. And even if you did, would you feel comfortable asking them to share intimate details of their lives? People can easily find themselves adrift without role models and end up regretting decisions or behavior. That’s where Rhonda Stoppe steps in. She’s an author, speaker, and podcast host who offers wisdom she’s gleaned during the quarter century she’s worked with couples alongside her pastor husband of four decades, Steve.

Sometimes it seems like a struggling marriage is just so stuck, there’s no way back to a loving relationship. Is it even possible to overcome long standing habits and hurts? Can a couple battle back after the betrayal of infidelity? Sue and Roy Milam, founders of Cornerstone Marriage & Family Ministries, have seen thousands of marriages healed over their almost three decades working with couples and leading A New Beginning intensive weekends.

Ask those who’ve spent time strengthening marriages and families, and especially as a counselor or in public policy, and they’ve probably heard of Dr. Richard Marks. You might be familiar with his work at Smartmarriages or Christian PAIRS curricula, which he helped develop with mentor Dr. Lori Gordon. Dr. Marks focuses most of his efforts helping deeply troubled couples as they wrestle with how their struggles with trauma, substance abuse, sexual addiction, and general mental health issues affect their marriages.

Your first fight started long before you ever met your spouse. That’s because coping skills formed in childhood play a much larger role in later relationships than most people realize. Counselors and authors Milan and Kay Yerkovich realized when studying attachment research that the ways young children bond (or don’t) with their parents during their early years deeply affect their ability to connect with their spouse later in life. Their How We Love resources help people discover their unhealthy behavior patterns and overcome the deficits that plague their marriages.

Nobody gets divorced if they are in love. That profound realization became the thesis upon which marriage therapist and researcher Willard Harley, Ph.D., built his work and eventually became the inspiration for bestselling, His Needs, Her Needs book. The concepts Dr. Harley introduced became the bedrock upon which later experts in the marriage field founded their practices, including the Nashville-based Marriage Dynamics Institute (MDI), which began in 1994.

Don’t you wish that there was an instruction manual to help you in your marriage? Unfortunately, there isn’t one perfect roadmap, but there is The Alexander House, an apostolate strengthening marriages throughout San Antonio and South Texas. The Alexander House was birthed by Julie and Greg Alexander out of their passion to share their experience after their marriage on the brink of divorce was miraculously restored. Julie and Greg began telling their story, speaking and mentoring others in 1999.

Alan Hawkins, Ph.D., has devoted his professional career to studying family life. A professor in the Brigham Young University School of Family Life, Dr. Hawkins has focused his work on studying and applying relationship education tools to help individuals and couples form and sustain healthy relationships and strong marriages. His award-winning work focuses on educational interventions and public policies aimed at preventing unnecessary divorces. He assists couples in answering the question: “Should I try to work it out?”

The subject has been addressed before, but it bears repeating. Divorced and/or remarried people fill our churches. Children from broken or blended homes attend our Sunday school classes. We hope their teens attend our youth programs. In fact, 113 million adults have at least one stepfamily relationship, according to Craig Morgan, who, along with his wife Gina, founded Blended Together Forever, a ministry created to offer hope, encouragement and support to members of blended families. 

When was the last time you heard a sermon or listened to a podcast emphasizing the importance of your marriage? Read a book about relationships? Or attended a marriage enrichment event or date night? Researchers, pastors, authors and speakers emphasize the importance of focusing on family relationships. But what happens when the boost from the event fades or, even worse, uncovers some troubled spots or brokenness? Where do you turn for help? 

“Till death do us part.” Catholics have traditionally taken their marital vows seriously. Considering marriage a sacred, holy sacrament, the Catholic Church is known to discourage divorce. But has the church invested in helping couples strengthen their marriages? Marriage champions Lorrie Gramer and her husband, Don, were early advocates of marriage building since the Marriage Encounter they attended on their second wedding anniversary in 1974 proved transformational.

What happens when the unimaginable happens … in your family? That’s the circumstance in which Cathy and Ron Tijerina found themselves after Ron was sentenced to 14-25 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Cathy was left at home with no job, no source of income and two toddlers to care for.

People unhappy in marriage often believe their only option is divorce. Once they file, they find themselves on a “divorce superhighway – with no off-ramps or exit signs,” to quote a respected judge in Minnesota. However, thinking about divorce does not have to mean a death sentence for a marriage. A couple can get help to determine the best path for them before making a life-changing decision. (with Russ Berg)