Family by God&#039;s Design

The Top 6 Ways to Resolve Marital Conflict

A study published in August, 2024, and appearing in Contemporary Family Therapy offers interesting insight into resolving marital conflict. This study utilized data from 1,112 couples. Specifically, this study explored how the conflict resolution style each person brought to their marriage contributed to their ability to effectively manage conflict in the relationship. They identified 23...

Grace Honor

communication compromise conflict conflict resolution listen marriage self-soothe

March 16, 2024

The Harmony of Truth and Love in Conflict

The happiest marriages hold a beautiful harmony of truth and love, even in the midst of conflict. I like how Jimmy Evans puts it (You can read this quote from Jimmy Evans and more @ Jimmy Evans Quotes (Author of Tipping Point) (goodreads.com)): “Truth without love is like surgery without anesthesia. Love without truth is...

Grace Honor

conflict conflict resolution honesty integrity intimacy marriage truth

February 10, 2024

They Know More Than You Think

Our children are geniuses. They know so much more than we think. In some sense, this is good. It helps them learn and grow. In other ways, not so good because they know much more about what is going on at home than we might imagine. For instance, a study published in the Journal of...

Family Shepherds

children conflict resolution parent child conflict parenting teaching

January 15, 2024

The Choice

I love my wife. She is the most amazing woman I know. Still, sometimes she drives me crazy. She does things that…well…just don’t make sense. Take the dishwasher for example. Watching her load the dishwasher almost hurts. I have to do it for the sake of getting it to full capacity. She has no sense...

Celebration Honor

conflict resolution kindness resolving conflict

December 4, 2023

Breathe…Just Breathe

I remember learning a couple important lessons about breathing as a child and teen. I mean, I already knew how to breath. We all do, right? We don’t even have to think about breathing to do it. We know the general importance of breathing; we have to breathe to live. This became especially poignant to...

Celebration Honor

conflict resolution emotional management stress management

September 23, 2023

Hold Their Hand

Maybe the Beatles had something important for couples in conflict. They may not have known it, but nonetheless, it was an important message for couples in conflict. That message? “I want to hold your hand.” That’s right. Usually, we talk about improving verbal communication when it comes to conflict with our spouses. But the Beatles...

Celebration Grace

conflict conflict resolution marriage resolving conflict touch

July 17, 2023

Communicate Love, Even When You’re Mad

If you live in a family, you know what it means to love someone and be angry with them at the same time. Unfortunately, anger often energizes our communication more than our love. In anger we express ourselves more intensely. The challenge when we are angry is to express our needs in a way that...

Celebration Grace

arguments conflict resolution marriage vulnerability

May 6, 2023

Just My Words Can Do What?

Jesus knew that words are powerful. He once said, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder….’ But I say to you that…whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery...

Grace Honor

arguments conflict resolution marriage power of words resolving conflict

August 6, 2022

The First 3 Minutes: Predicting & Reflecting

Three minutes. That’s all it took. Three minutes…and the researchers could predict who would be divorced within six years. It was a study completed by John Gottman and Sybil Carrere to see if the way a discussion of marital conflict began would predict divorce. The study involved observing couples engage in 15-minute conversations about an...