Thank you Brian and Jana for sharing your wisdom concerning effective communication. It is no secret, for a marriage to thrive, couples must be able to communicate in a positive manner. I like what Jana said, "Couples have the power of either building up their marriage or destroying it."
For the past two weeks, we have received motivating principles that we need to incorporate into our marriage in order experience a greater depth of love, respect and communication. Now, it is time to put these principles into action. How many times have you heard a message preached and believed it truly motivated you only to wake up the next morning and fail to practice what you endeavored to put to great use. These seminars are awesome, but unless you put it to use, then it's just airy words and gracious nods, when what you really need is a good dose of implementation.
Jana mentioned four matches that have the potential to create communication fire hazards: Threats, name calling, blame and exaggeration. Only you can decide the areas that are potential hazards in your marriage, but through effective implementation you can make these intense fires dissipate. One step of implementation is endeavoring to "speak in a positive manner versus a negative one". This is a sure way to quash any potential communication hazard.
As Brian mentioned, couples need to implement "good listening skills, acknowledge when you have made a mistake, and learn to forgive even when you think you are right." Most importantly, remember that your children do not want to always be around disgruntled parents. Every couple experiences moments of intense disagreements, but when your home is filled with constant bickering, it does affect your children. "Parents arguing in destructive ways (especially about child-related matters) cause children to feel less than emotionally secure...." If that statement will not motivate you, then you need help!
Here are Brian's four points of implementing loving ways to communicate: find the right time to communicate, make time to communicate, do not fly off the handle, and lift your spouse up. Take the challenge, starting implementing changes, and you and your spouse will reap the rewards!
2 comments:
Oh, Debbie, you made us sound so much better than we are. Thanks for your kind words. For the topic of communication, Brian and I did not get our heads together so as not to duplicate one another. I was struck by the comment he made about aggressive children are most commonly a result of their parents chronic marital conflict. Nowadays we see so many misbehaving children and we chalk it up to no discipline. I am now wondering about the marital relationship of the parents to the misbehaving children.
Hey, it's me again. I just saw Mark's blog and I believe I saw a new kitchen table behind him?!? Looks good!!! And fresh flowers, too?!?!? Girl, I am so happy for you!
Post a Comment