April 27, 2025 • 14 mins
Practical Tips For Reconnecting, Establishing A Vision Plan For Your Marriage, And Protecting Your Relationship From Outside Influences
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Starcares, a weekly program that delves into the
issues that impact you and your family. This program is
a public affairs feature of this radio station. Now here's
your host, Michael Leach.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Your marriage was not meant to survive, but it was
meant to thrive, so says my guest today, Christine David
Fortune and her husband Stephen Fortune. They are dedicated Christian
relationship coaches. Christine and Steven. Thank you for joining me
today and welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Absolutely walk us through what you believe is God's definition
of marriage.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
In Genesis two twenty one, we see here God taking
two and making them one. It says, in flesh of
my flesh, she shall be called woman, because she was
taking out of man. Before man leaves his father and
lives his mother and cleanse to his wife, and they
become one flesh. In Genesis two twenty five, he tells
us that the two were naked and not ashamed, and
(00:55):
he goes on in Genesis two eighteen and God says
it is not good for the man to be alone.
I'll make him a helper. Also in Genesis three eight
he says he intended to walk with them. So the
definition that we pull looking at this different versus is
that one man and one woman becoming one walking naked
(01:16):
with each other, working together and walking with God. And
to us, that defines exactly what a marriage supposed to be,
encapsulates God's design for marriage as a covenant between a
husband and a wife, marked by unity, openness, partnership, and
a shared relationship with God.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Why do you think that it is imperative that couples
have a vision for their marriage?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
You know?
Speaker 5 (01:42):
The Bibles speak about that in hypercox saying write your
vision and make it plain. Without a vision, the Bible
says everyone will perish if you don't have a vision.
So having a vision individually, we understand that a lot
of people will have their own vision plans. But what
is your marriage vision in terms of on every level
of your marriage? How do we correlate together in terms
of intimacy on every level? How do we deal with finances?
(02:03):
How do we deal with everything else? Part of that
process is to bring two persons together to have a
singular way of thinking, a singular way of understanding what's
next for their life.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
And I think with all the have chaos.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
You believe that each partner, no matter what's going on
in the marriage, should take full responsibility for what you
deposit into your marriage. Say more about that.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Absolutely, we come into marriage and there's this game that
couples play of blaming and criticizing each other. However, I
do believe that if we take one hundred percent responsibility
for how we show up as an individual, then we
could take one hundred percent responsibility for the freedom that
we have in our marriage. It takes a mindset shift first,
(02:47):
and I always believe that relationship can change if we
start asking ourselves two questions in our marriage. One, how
am I creating this? Whatever is happening in your marriage,
how are you as an individual creating this? And what
does your relationship need from you in order to get
to the next stage. Most times, when you have dysfunction
(03:07):
happening in the marriage, when you have fighting out, you
know there is power struggles going on in your marriage.
Most times, what couple do is like, oh, you see,
it's his fault. He did not talk to me, he
did not listen to what I have to say, she
did not you know, And we do that pointing, that blaming,
that criticizing, right, Rather, if you stop and you start
asking yourself, all right, how am I showing up here?
(03:27):
What do I need to change? Rather than saying you're
not listening to me, but saying, I wonder how I
can communicate in a way that makes it easier for
you to hear me. If each couple would stop and
think about how am I showing up and how can
I do different so that it can change, then that
relationship is going to change. So we believe that if
(03:48):
you show up one hundred percent healthy, then you bring
one hundred percent healthier marriage, and your marriage is going
to be one hundred percent health Just.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Want to add one more piece to that is that
the understanding that the two shall be one. So you're
not operating from the space of being individuals here, You're
operating from the space of having one common vision. So
if we aligned to that oneness, then I could only
point myself for what's going on in the relationship and
how can I enhance it and make it better.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
You say that there are five stages of relationships. Can
you walk us through a few of those?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So the first stage of a relationship is actually the
romance or infatuation stage. In that stage, we see couples
just getting together. There's a rush of adrenaline, there's excitement
to be together. You're just getting to know your partner.
And so what happens in that stage is that you
overlook everything that may not seem right because you're so
(04:41):
excited about doing this life together. Most of the time
between two months or two years is that face. There
are some couples who get stuck in that stage. They
only want to feel that excitement, so as soon as
that excitement start fading, they start moving from relationship to relationship.
Second stage of relationship, the power struggle, is a realization stage.
Really start bumping hairs at your partner, You start seeing
(05:02):
the other side. I like to say, in that stage
there's less back robes and less love notes. They spend
time arguing and fighting and trying to get through that dysfunction.
Some couples think that this function is normal and so
they stick it out, or sometimes they think, well, I
don't need to be here, This is not what love
and marriage is supposed to be, and they walk away
from it. But that stage is inevitable. Every relationship goes
(05:24):
through that stage, and you experience that stage maybe more
than once in your relationship. Let me just point out
that sometimes the very thing that you fall in love
with with your partner is the very thing in that
stage that you start looking at and being like, well,
what you might see your partners just laid back and loving,
but now you're in that stage just that, oh my gosh,
she's so lazy. What is happening? Next stage, which is
(05:46):
actually the commitment stage. And in the commitment stages, where
you make a conscious decision or that you've seen the
good and the bad in your partner to stick together
and walk through it together, you will do whatever it
takes in order to make it better. You got to
rely on God a lot in that stage, because this
is where you start asking the question, what does my
relationship needs from me to survive? What does it need
(06:08):
from me to go beyond surviving? And how am I
contributing to that? Can you move into what we call
the growth stage or the stability stage, and this is
where transformation actually begins. There's an awareness of what's not working,
and then you start using tools in order to break
through the things that not working and keep working on it.
From there, this is where couples become deeply connected and
(06:29):
they start communicating in a different way and interacting in
a different way to help their relationship go into the
next stage, which is actually the thriving stage, or in
your stage of your marriage, team working togetherness comes together.
You have healthy communication, you have shared visions, right, shared goals,
share commitments, and you walk together. Even if you are
in that thriving stage, it does not seclude you or
(06:52):
shield you from the power struggle stage, because the power
struggle stage is something that goes through a lifetime of
your relationship. It just means that now that you're in
that stage where you know how to use the tools
that you've got, then you're able to walk through the
powers struggle even faster.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You all have said that conflict in and of itself
is really not bad, but chaos is. Give us some
guidance on that.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
If you look at the word itself, it kind of
denotes that we are on different wavelength, we are on
a different page. We have a different understanding on something
or a subject. That's not bad because individually we should
be different. Individually, God had created us in his image
and likeness. It means that I am uniquely me and
you're uniquely you, and that's just mighty. The greatest part
(07:33):
of that creation is that when God put us together,
he did not make a mistake. He says, going to
give Stephen Christine, And what I bring to the table
is almost totally different to what my wife brings to
the table.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
See. That's why it's important to have that vision.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
That's why it's important to get to the stage where
we can commit ourselves to what's next.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
If we're able to walk through.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
That conflict and understand that my strength, she can hide
behind my strength, and I can use my strength to
better all our relationship and she can use her strength
to better our relationship, it actually leads us to a
place where we are using.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Each other's strength at all costs.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
We look at conflict and say, hey, we might be
in conflict.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
It's not a bad thing. It is a price we
pay for intimacy and growth.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
However, chaos is a different story, and we understand what
chaos brings.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Let me just add to that a little bit, because conflict,
society tells us it's negative, but it can be healthy
and it's necessary even beneficial for growth in relationship including marriage. However,
when conflict is not managed properly, then we start having destruction.
Then it can lead to chaos, which in itself.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Is harmful, and speaking about healthy conflict, talk about the
importance of prayer, both individually and as a couple.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
I do believe a healthy me equal to unhealthy we,
so prayer I have to really andually get closer to God.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Because you see, God have.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Given both of us gives, abilities, talents, and resources. So
my gifts that you have given me may not be
the same gifty have given my wife. So when we
develop that relationship and actually be able to pray with
confidence to God, we're both individually building us up and
in turn coming together to pray on things together that
(09:15):
we could align with. So your prayer have to also
be part of your vision. Your prayer have to be
part of what you decide on, Like, for example, for
my wife and I, every single year, we will select
three important things in our lives that we're going to
spend time praying together for the entire year. So it's
important that couples get together in terms of prayer, but
also have an agenda of how you pray together. Not
(09:38):
just have a prayer moment, but put things in place
that you can align with God and invite God into
that prayer with you.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
On your spouse.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I've heard you all make a differential between family and relatives.
Can you please clarify.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
The Bible says to leave and cleave.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
One of the things that we have recognized throughout our
time working with couples is a lot of people haven't
been able to defrench shep the difference between relatives and
family and believe and cleave process that God have asked you.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
To do when you get together in your marriage.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Your family is your wife, your kids, and everything that
is right within that space.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Your relatives are those like your.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Brothers, your sisters, your aunties, your uncles, and a lot
of the times what we do is that we allow
the brothers, the sisters, the aunties, and uncles to influence
the conversation within my wife and myself, and that in
itself is detrimental. We have to be able to be
in a space where we can set very clear boundaries
of what that look like and who hold precedents in
(10:34):
my communication and in my decision making.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
There may be somebody listening right now, a couple who
just feels hopeless and they feel like their marriage is
going to come to an end. Can you take a
few moments to encourage them right now.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I believe that God never designed marriage to just be
up in the air and not succeed.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
In the presence of God, will always succeed. There is
always hope.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
So often we look at the end and because we
find the end is far, we don't run the race.
And I believe that no matter where you are today
in your relationship, as my wife would always say, a
healthy mean how healthy are you in your relationship? In
terms of individually, First, is it a blame game that
we play in right now that it's you that causing
it or me that's causing it?
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Who is taking responsibility?
Speaker 5 (11:18):
And most importantly, what have you deposited in your relationship lately?
Have you deposited a little backrop, have you deposited a
love note? Have you deposited some flowers? Have you deposited
a gift? What have you deposited in your relationship right now?
Because again, your relationship is like a bank account. The
more you deposit into that relationship is the more you
(11:38):
can get.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Out of it. So build that deposit to a strong
place where you can thrive.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Remember it's not about winning arguments, but it's more about
winning each other's heart. Shift your mindset and know that
God desires unity, healing, and reconciliation in your marriage, not destruction.
The marriage design is a reflection of how Christ's love
is shut and that's what we should be doing. So
I want to encourage openness and honest conversation. Pray together,
(12:06):
pray together, but have an honest, open conversation. And when
you feel certain things, like when you're ready to share
your emotions, be careful with your statements and how you
share that instead of going into it with a blaming mindset.
Shift that like I feel hurt when XYZ happened, rather
than you make me feel hurt. And address unforgiveness and resentment,
(12:27):
because sometimes there's a lot of resentment that's going on
within your relationship, but you need to be able to
open up and talk about the bigger piture of what's
going on, because unforgiveness is the biggest marriage destroyer. We've
spoken to many couples and we've seen it. Let God in.
Put God first, Put him at the center, put him
at the apex of that triangle. It's not just between
you and your husband, you and your wife, but the
(12:48):
triangular with God at the apex and the closer you
get to God, the closer you get to each other.
We truly believe that faith is a foundation that helps
a marriage stand the test of time. Marriage was never
just a an idea. It was God's design from the
very beginning. And when couples in fighting into their relationship,
it changes everything.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
You may get to the place where you will need
a third party to guide you through that process. And
that's one of the things that we often encourage just
the same.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Our time is up and we need help still, So
how can we learn more and how can people get
in touch with you if they need some help.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Our email address is exhale e x h A l
e n O w r C at gmail dot com.
Xhale e x h A l E n O w
r C at gmail dot com. We also do workshops
and retreats booke me that name at excel now LLC. Again,
(13:44):
that's book me that name slash Exhale now LLC. We
also offer couples one on one with us. We have
different sessions premarital as well as martel.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Book me that name slash Exhale now l l C
l L or email Exhale now RC at gmail dot com.
Xhale now RC at gmail dot com. Christine and Stephen Fortune,
thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Thank you your problem, thank you for having us and
you're doing a good thing there.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
And thank you for listening. Won't you join me again?
I'm your host, Michael Legion. I am praying for you,
and I am praying that the rest of your day
is wonderful.
Welcome to Starcares, a weekly program that delves into the
issues that impact you and your family. This program is
a public affairs feature of this radio station. Now here's
your host, Michael Leach.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Your marriage was not meant to survive, but it was
meant to thrive, so says my guest today, Christine David
Fortune and her husband Stephen Fortune. They are dedicated Christian
relationship coaches. Christine and Steven. Thank you for joining me
today and welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Absolutely walk us through what you believe is God's definition
of marriage.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
In Genesis two twenty one, we see here God taking
two and making them one. It says, in flesh of
my flesh, she shall be called woman, because she was
taking out of man. Before man leaves his father and
lives his mother and cleanse to his wife, and they
become one flesh. In Genesis two twenty five, he tells
us that the two were naked and not ashamed, and
(00:55):
he goes on in Genesis two eighteen and God says
it is not good for the man to be alone.
I'll make him a helper. Also in Genesis three eight
he says he intended to walk with them. So the
definition that we pull looking at this different versus is
that one man and one woman becoming one walking naked
(01:16):
with each other, working together and walking with God. And
to us, that defines exactly what a marriage supposed to be,
encapsulates God's design for marriage as a covenant between a
husband and a wife, marked by unity, openness, partnership, and
a shared relationship with God.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Why do you think that it is imperative that couples
have a vision for their marriage?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
You know?
Speaker 5 (01:42):
The Bibles speak about that in hypercox saying write your
vision and make it plain. Without a vision, the Bible
says everyone will perish if you don't have a vision.
So having a vision individually, we understand that a lot
of people will have their own vision plans. But what
is your marriage vision in terms of on every level
of your marriage? How do we correlate together in terms
of intimacy on every level? How do we deal with finances?
(02:03):
How do we deal with everything else? Part of that
process is to bring two persons together to have a
singular way of thinking, a singular way of understanding what's
next for their life.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
And I think with all the have chaos.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
You believe that each partner, no matter what's going on
in the marriage, should take full responsibility for what you
deposit into your marriage. Say more about that.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Absolutely, we come into marriage and there's this game that
couples play of blaming and criticizing each other. However, I
do believe that if we take one hundred percent responsibility
for how we show up as an individual, then we
could take one hundred percent responsibility for the freedom that
we have in our marriage. It takes a mindset shift first,
(02:47):
and I always believe that relationship can change if we
start asking ourselves two questions in our marriage. One, how
am I creating this? Whatever is happening in your marriage,
how are you as an individual creating this? And what
does your relationship need from you in order to get
to the next stage. Most times, when you have dysfunction
(03:07):
happening in the marriage, when you have fighting out, you
know there is power struggles going on in your marriage.
Most times, what couple do is like, oh, you see,
it's his fault. He did not talk to me, he
did not listen to what I have to say, she
did not you know, And we do that pointing, that blaming,
that criticizing, right, Rather, if you stop and you start
asking yourself, all right, how am I showing up here?
(03:27):
What do I need to change? Rather than saying you're
not listening to me, but saying, I wonder how I
can communicate in a way that makes it easier for
you to hear me. If each couple would stop and
think about how am I showing up and how can
I do different so that it can change, then that
relationship is going to change. So we believe that if
(03:48):
you show up one hundred percent healthy, then you bring
one hundred percent healthier marriage, and your marriage is going
to be one hundred percent health Just.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Want to add one more piece to that is that
the understanding that the two shall be one. So you're
not operating from the space of being individuals here, You're
operating from the space of having one common vision. So
if we aligned to that oneness, then I could only
point myself for what's going on in the relationship and
how can I enhance it and make it better.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
You say that there are five stages of relationships. Can
you walk us through a few of those?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So the first stage of a relationship is actually the
romance or infatuation stage. In that stage, we see couples
just getting together. There's a rush of adrenaline, there's excitement
to be together. You're just getting to know your partner.
And so what happens in that stage is that you
overlook everything that may not seem right because you're so
(04:41):
excited about doing this life together. Most of the time
between two months or two years is that face. There
are some couples who get stuck in that stage. They
only want to feel that excitement, so as soon as
that excitement start fading, they start moving from relationship to relationship.
Second stage of relationship, the power struggle, is a realization stage.
Really start bumping hairs at your partner, You start seeing
(05:02):
the other side. I like to say, in that stage
there's less back robes and less love notes. They spend
time arguing and fighting and trying to get through that dysfunction.
Some couples think that this function is normal and so
they stick it out, or sometimes they think, well, I
don't need to be here, This is not what love
and marriage is supposed to be, and they walk away
from it. But that stage is inevitable. Every relationship goes
(05:24):
through that stage, and you experience that stage maybe more
than once in your relationship. Let me just point out
that sometimes the very thing that you fall in love
with with your partner is the very thing in that
stage that you start looking at and being like, well,
what you might see your partners just laid back and loving,
but now you're in that stage just that, oh my gosh,
she's so lazy. What is happening? Next stage, which is
(05:46):
actually the commitment stage. And in the commitment stages, where
you make a conscious decision or that you've seen the
good and the bad in your partner to stick together
and walk through it together, you will do whatever it
takes in order to make it better. You got to
rely on God a lot in that stage, because this
is where you start asking the question, what does my
relationship needs from me to survive? What does it need
(06:08):
from me to go beyond surviving? And how am I
contributing to that? Can you move into what we call
the growth stage or the stability stage, and this is
where transformation actually begins. There's an awareness of what's not working,
and then you start using tools in order to break
through the things that not working and keep working on it.
From there, this is where couples become deeply connected and
(06:29):
they start communicating in a different way and interacting in
a different way to help their relationship go into the
next stage, which is actually the thriving stage, or in
your stage of your marriage, team working togetherness comes together.
You have healthy communication, you have shared visions, right, shared goals,
share commitments, and you walk together. Even if you are
in that thriving stage, it does not seclude you or
(06:52):
shield you from the power struggle stage, because the power
struggle stage is something that goes through a lifetime of
your relationship. It just means that now that you're in
that stage where you know how to use the tools
that you've got, then you're able to walk through the
powers struggle even faster.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You all have said that conflict in and of itself
is really not bad, but chaos is. Give us some
guidance on that.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
If you look at the word itself, it kind of
denotes that we are on different wavelength, we are on
a different page. We have a different understanding on something
or a subject. That's not bad because individually we should
be different. Individually, God had created us in his image
and likeness. It means that I am uniquely me and
you're uniquely you, and that's just mighty. The greatest part
(07:33):
of that creation is that when God put us together,
he did not make a mistake. He says, going to
give Stephen Christine, And what I bring to the table
is almost totally different to what my wife brings to
the table.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
See. That's why it's important to have that vision.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
That's why it's important to get to the stage where
we can commit ourselves to what's next.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
If we're able to walk through.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
That conflict and understand that my strength, she can hide
behind my strength, and I can use my strength to
better all our relationship and she can use her strength
to better our relationship, it actually leads us to a
place where we are using.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Each other's strength at all costs.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
We look at conflict and say, hey, we might be
in conflict.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
It's not a bad thing. It is a price we
pay for intimacy and growth.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
However, chaos is a different story, and we understand what
chaos brings.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Let me just add to that a little bit, because conflict,
society tells us it's negative, but it can be healthy
and it's necessary even beneficial for growth in relationship including marriage. However,
when conflict is not managed properly, then we start having destruction.
Then it can lead to chaos, which in itself.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Is harmful, and speaking about healthy conflict, talk about the
importance of prayer, both individually and as a couple.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
I do believe a healthy me equal to unhealthy we,
so prayer I have to really andually get closer to God.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Because you see, God have.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Given both of us gives, abilities, talents, and resources. So
my gifts that you have given me may not be
the same gifty have given my wife. So when we
develop that relationship and actually be able to pray with
confidence to God, we're both individually building us up and
in turn coming together to pray on things together that
(09:15):
we could align with. So your prayer have to also
be part of your vision. Your prayer have to be
part of what you decide on, Like, for example, for
my wife and I, every single year, we will select
three important things in our lives that we're going to
spend time praying together for the entire year. So it's
important that couples get together in terms of prayer, but
also have an agenda of how you pray together. Not
(09:38):
just have a prayer moment, but put things in place
that you can align with God and invite God into
that prayer with you.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
On your spouse.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I've heard you all make a differential between family and relatives.
Can you please clarify.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
The Bible says to leave and cleave.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
One of the things that we have recognized throughout our
time working with couples is a lot of people haven't
been able to defrench shep the difference between relatives and
family and believe and cleave process that God have asked you.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
To do when you get together in your marriage.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Your family is your wife, your kids, and everything that
is right within that space.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Your relatives are those like your.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Brothers, your sisters, your aunties, your uncles, and a lot
of the times what we do is that we allow
the brothers, the sisters, the aunties, and uncles to influence
the conversation within my wife and myself, and that in
itself is detrimental. We have to be able to be
in a space where we can set very clear boundaries
of what that look like and who hold precedents in
(10:34):
my communication and in my decision making.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
There may be somebody listening right now, a couple who
just feels hopeless and they feel like their marriage is
going to come to an end. Can you take a
few moments to encourage them right now.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I believe that God never designed marriage to just be
up in the air and not succeed.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
In the presence of God, will always succeed. There is
always hope.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
So often we look at the end and because we
find the end is far, we don't run the race.
And I believe that no matter where you are today
in your relationship, as my wife would always say, a
healthy mean how healthy are you in your relationship? In
terms of individually, First, is it a blame game that
we play in right now that it's you that causing
it or me that's causing it?
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Who is taking responsibility?
Speaker 5 (11:18):
And most importantly, what have you deposited in your relationship lately?
Have you deposited a little backrop, have you deposited a
love note? Have you deposited some flowers? Have you deposited
a gift? What have you deposited in your relationship right now?
Because again, your relationship is like a bank account. The
more you deposit into that relationship is the more you
(11:38):
can get.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Out of it. So build that deposit to a strong
place where you can thrive.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Remember it's not about winning arguments, but it's more about
winning each other's heart. Shift your mindset and know that
God desires unity, healing, and reconciliation in your marriage, not destruction.
The marriage design is a reflection of how Christ's love
is shut and that's what we should be doing. So
I want to encourage openness and honest conversation. Pray together,
(12:06):
pray together, but have an honest, open conversation. And when
you feel certain things, like when you're ready to share
your emotions, be careful with your statements and how you
share that instead of going into it with a blaming mindset.
Shift that like I feel hurt when XYZ happened, rather
than you make me feel hurt. And address unforgiveness and resentment,
(12:27):
because sometimes there's a lot of resentment that's going on
within your relationship, but you need to be able to
open up and talk about the bigger piture of what's
going on, because unforgiveness is the biggest marriage destroyer. We've
spoken to many couples and we've seen it. Let God in.
Put God first, Put him at the center, put him
at the apex of that triangle. It's not just between
you and your husband, you and your wife, but the
(12:48):
triangular with God at the apex and the closer you
get to God, the closer you get to each other.
We truly believe that faith is a foundation that helps
a marriage stand the test of time. Marriage was never
just a an idea. It was God's design from the
very beginning. And when couples in fighting into their relationship,
it changes everything.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
You may get to the place where you will need
a third party to guide you through that process. And
that's one of the things that we often encourage just
the same.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Our time is up and we need help still, So
how can we learn more and how can people get
in touch with you if they need some help.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Our email address is exhale e x h A l
e n O w r C at gmail dot com.
Xhale e x h A l E n O w
r C at gmail dot com. We also do workshops
and retreats booke me that name at excel now LLC. Again,
(13:44):
that's book me that name slash Exhale now LLC. We
also offer couples one on one with us. We have
different sessions premarital as well as martel.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Book me that name slash Exhale now l l C
l L or email Exhale now RC at gmail dot com.
Xhale now RC at gmail dot com. Christine and Stephen Fortune,
thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Thank you your problem, thank you for having us and
you're doing a good thing there.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
And thank you for listening. Won't you join me again?
I'm your host, Michael Legion. I am praying for you,
and I am praying that the rest of your day
is wonderful.
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