Have you ever had a song that stuck with you? A song that resonated with you so much that you wanted to listen to it over and over again? “I Can Only Imagine” is that kind of song for millions of people, including myself. Whenever I have trials in life, whenever I have another heart surgery, whenever work overwhelms me, whenever Mark’s back pain becomes unbearable, it gives me great peace to reflect on the lyrics: I can only imagine…
I have two sons and three daughters. They’ve grown into awesome young adults, but there were huge bumps along the way. Now that I’ve come out on the other side of the childhood years, I want to warn you about some of the mistakes I have made and some that I have observed other moms making when raising a son. Many of these mistakes are actually born of good intentions – in other words, we over-parent, overprotect, and just overdo it. So…
I have entered a new phase of raising daughters. My oldest daughter, who is also my oldest child, got married last year. This daughter of mine has always brought me great happiness, and now, we have a friend relationship, too. I respect her advice. I seek her opinion on work matters. I look to her for fashion tips! I tell you all of that to give you hope in case you’re still navigating the joys and challenges of raising a daughter and wondering…
I love asking loving, married couples their secret for a happy marriage. Many times they’ll just look at each other and smile. But there have been other times when I’ve gotten some really good advice. The discovery I made was that there was an interesting commonality in the advice — it usually has something to do with attitude. Most words to inspire a happy marriage inspire us to have a better attitude about our spouse, our relationship, and our life…
Until a year ago, my husband, Mark, lived in a “forever young” bubble. He looks great, works out regularly, and never gets sick. Another Saturday moving day came (a regular occurrence with 5 young adults in our family) because my daughter was moving into a new apartment. In the rush to get it done, only one son was available and my undaunted husband figured that was enough. The apartment was on the second floor. It is unclear which piece of furniture…
Mark and I recently did a weekend marriage conference. We had just completed a session about how to fight fair in marriage when a young, newly-married, couple approached me during the break. The moment I was free they leaned in with an anxious look on their faces and asked, “when did conflict start in your marriage?” I paused. The air was full of expectation, and I felt my answer had significant power to help or hurt this poor suffering couple.…
I love Facebook, I really do. It’s great for keeping up with my friends; it’s great for getting a heads up about special deals, and it’s great for getting to know our Facebook friends of iMOM and Susanme. However, there is one big thing that Facebook is not so great for – marriages. In fact, Facebook is cited as the major source of evidence in many divorce proceedings. So if you’re married and you’re on Facebook, there are some things you…