Description
002: Coaching, Pastoring, and Teaching Couples to Enjoy Life Together: Seven Ways to Experience High Levels of Marital Satisfaction and Avoid Marital Drift
Ted Cunningham, M.A.C.E.
Woodland Hills Family Church
3953 Green Mountain Dr.
Branson, MO 65616
Summary
Marital satisfaction is a choice, not an outcome. Enjoying life together requires the daily decisions of prioritizing quality couple time, speaking words of high value over one another, leaning into a biblical community, listening with your spouse in mind, eradicating the kid-centered home, offering forgiveness, and keeping an open heart. Marital drift is not a choice. It sneaks in at the moment you stop choosing to enjoy life together. The good news is marital satisfaction is based on factors and skills couples can do something about in any season or stage of life. That means marital satisfaction is possible for any and every couple. We need to move away from the “doom and gloom” teaching on marriage. Research shows that most couples in our country are “very happy” or “pretty happy” in their marriages. Pastors, preachers, teachers, small group leaders, coaches, and counselors need to lead with a beautiful picture of marriage rather than the worn-out starting line, “Marriage is hard work.” What if it is easier than we think?
Learning Objectives
Participants will:
• Outline strategies for coaches and pastoral counselors to help couples in all seasons and stages of life achieve high levels of marital satisfaction and lower their risks of drift and divorce
• Articulate the early warning signs of marital drift
• Identify and critique outdated marriage messages and develop relevant alternatives that speak to all couples in their churches, practices, and communities
