God is faithful. He promises a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair… and to repay for the years the locusts have eaten.

The rebirth of Brad and Lisa Valencia’s now 22-year marriage could be described no less vividly.

Twelve years ago, it seemed their relationship was dead. Brad had walked away from life with Lisa, leaving her alone with three small children, one just nine months old. Divorce papers had been prepared. Lisa was about to sign, until a phone call from Brad caused her to pause.

He told her he felt God calling him back in forgiveness to the faith and family he’d left.

Pornography. We don’t talk much about it in Christian circles. It’s that dirty little secret hiding behind closed doors and computer screens quietly destroying marriages. The world’s number one site, Pornhub, estimates sixty-four million people click on its link EVERY DAY. Forty million Americans are regular users, and one in three are women.

Pastor and author Nick Stumbo serves as Executive Director of Pure Desire Ministries, the non-profit that helped him find victory over his decades-long struggle with pornography addiction and helps thousands of couples become sexually healthy.

You’ve seen them – men and women sitting in church week after week by themselves. Or maybe that person is you. You may have found Christ after marriage or returned to the faith in which you were raised, but either way – you are pursuing a relationship with God, while your spouse is… not. 

Coach and speaker Lynn Donovan offers wisdom and support to those in a spiritually mismatched marriage. Her work offers hope and help to a Christian learning to be united with their spouse, even when he or she holds very different beliefs.

If you’ve hit your 40th birthday and you’re married, you’ve probably felt the pull of midlife. Maybe it’s the squeeze of taking care of an aging parent and the kids. Or a corporate restructure has jumpstarted early retirement. Perhaps an empty nest has caused you and your spouse to wonder if you even know each other. Any and all of these situations can cause a midlife couple to pause and take inventory of their lives and the state of their marriage.

Dorothy Greco, award-winning photographer, author and speaker, addresses midlife issues and transparently shares lessons learned as she and her husband, Christopher, have navigated the past 33 years of marriage together … and in so doing drawn closer to God and each other.

Pastor, speaker, author and consultant Rob Rienow, DMin, has a heart for the Gospel and a passion for marriages and families. He feels called to share the message that God created marriage and the home as the bedrock of culture and civilization. Sadly, these concepts have lost traction in modern western culture.

Do you know what we need more than anything else to address these problems? We need more people who love Jesus Christ and who are willing to lay down their lives for Him.

The Rienows believe God created marriage for two main purposes. 1) To reflect God’s glory as a picture of the love between Christ and the church. 2) To raise godly children who will advance the kingdom of Christ to the next generation.

One day you wake up and realize your spouse has been hiding a terrible secret. It might be an affair or irresponsible spending. Your marriage isn’t what you thought it was, you feel betrayed, and you have decisions to make. Can a marriage be restored when trust is broken?

Marriage leaders Justin and Trisha Davis have been in your shoes. They share their personal journey overcoming betrayal, an affair and the redemption of their relationship through their RefineUs ministry.

Change feels uncomfortable. But the old adage that change is inevitable rings true.

How you navigate change with your spouse will impact your relationship either positively or negatively. Helping couples transition well together has been a primary focus for speakers and authors Sean and Lanette Reed. They share lessons hard learned on their journey growing from teen sweethearts and young parents, through job loss, moves, until finally finding their sweet spot leading a thriving ministry inspiring couples that they, too, can overcome life’s challenges and enjoy a fulfilling marriage and life.

God designed the family as the primary unit of society. And marriage is the heart of the family. Since marriage was designed by God, what better place to find instruction on how to live it out than in His Word?

The concept of applying scripture to daily life forms the foundation of Scott LaPierre’s teaching. He first began preparing a marriage sermon series for his congregation at Woodland Christian Church in Washington state. Marriage month sermons grew into a year-round emphasis and commitment to help the families of his flock thrive in their relationships.

Do you realize that every interaction between you and your spouse is either knitting your hearts closer together or infinitesimally moving them farther apart. Like grains of sand being washed away from an eroding beach, one day you could look up and realize the entire coastline of your marriage has changed. Marriage ministry leaders Jill and Mark Savage named that distancing process the “Slow Fade” after a line in a Casting Crowns song that described the drifting that contributed to what they call the darkest year of their now 40-year marriage.

Most of us recognize the familiar whine of a mosquito. Sometimes, the bloodthirsty pests become so irritating they prevent us from enjoying outdoor activities. Just as the pesky mosquito diminishes the joy of a summer evening, so too, do the “mosquitoes” of distraction suck the life out of a marriage, according to the founders of Marriage Matters Now, Inc., Debbie and Steve Wilson.

Sometimes it seems like a struggling marriage is just so stuck, there’s no way back to a loving relationship. Is it even possible to overcome long standing habits and hurts? Can a couple battle back after the betrayal of infidelity? Sue and Roy Milam, founders of Cornerstone Marriage & Family Ministries, have seen thousands of marriages healed over their almost three decades working with couples and leading A New Beginning intensive weekends.

Ask those who’ve spent time strengthening marriages and families, and especially as a counselor or in public policy, and they’ve probably heard of Dr. Richard Marks. You might be familiar with his work at Smartmarriages or Christian PAIRS curricula, which he helped develop with mentor Dr. Lori Gordon. Dr. Marks focuses most of his efforts helping deeply troubled couples as they wrestle with how their struggles with trauma, substance abuse, sexual addiction, and general mental health issues affect their marriages.

It’s no secret that Focus on the Family has long carried the standard for marriage and family. Marriage champions have relied on Focus as a valuable source of resources they can trust for decades. The depth and breadth of resources available at Focus is extensive and include an array of those Greg and Erin Smalley created that empower champions to support marriages in all ages and stages.

Have you ever worried that something in your past might disqualify you from serving God? Feel like poor choices or growing up in a dysfunctional home are too much to overcome? Be encouraged. God can redeem all things. There’s no background or brokenness God can’t use for good for those who wholeheartedly seek him.

“Culture tells us real men make a lot of money and have it all together” — BetterMan.com. That description may seem like the guy version of the American Dream, but is that definition obtainable? Does that goal give a man purpose and the desire to bring his best self to his marriage, his family and his work? 

That standard leaves a lot to be desired according to best-selling author, pastor and trailblazer in Christian men’s ministry Robert Lewis, who for 40 years has helped millions discover and pass on a biblically based, authentic and life enriching definition of what it means to be a man.

Nobody gets divorced if they are in love. That profound realization became the thesis upon which marriage therapist and researcher Willard Harley, Ph.D., built his work and eventually became the inspiration for bestselling, His Needs, Her Needs book. The concepts Dr. Harley introduced became the bedrock upon which later experts in the marriage field founded their practices, including the Nashville-based Marriage Dynamics Institute (MDI), which began in 1994.

Don’t you wish that there was an instruction manual to help you in your marriage? Unfortunately, there isn’t one perfect roadmap, but there is The Alexander House, an apostolate strengthening marriages throughout San Antonio and South Texas. The Alexander House was birthed by Julie and Greg Alexander out of their passion to share their experience after their marriage on the brink of divorce was miraculously restored. Julie and Greg began telling their story, speaking and mentoring others in 1999.

Alan Hawkins, Ph.D., has devoted his professional career to studying family life. A professor in the Brigham Young University School of Family Life, Dr. Hawkins has focused his work on studying and applying relationship education tools to help individuals and couples form and sustain healthy relationships and strong marriages. His award-winning work focuses on educational interventions and public policies aimed at preventing unnecessary divorces. He assists couples in answering the question: “Should I try to work it out?”

The subject has been addressed before, but it bears repeating. Divorced and/or remarried people fill our churches. Children from broken or blended homes attend our Sunday school classes. We hope their teens attend our youth programs. In fact, 113 million adults have at least one stepfamily relationship, according to Craig Morgan, who, along with his wife Gina, founded Blended Together Forever, a ministry created to offer hope, encouragement and support to members of blended families. 

Click. The sound of a light switch. That small switch has the power to change a room from darkness to one illuminated with warming light. A switch can also describe a change in a person’s emotional and mental state from positive to negative, or vice versa. The ability to identify, then actively move one’s emotional outlook from negative to positive is what Christian life coaches Chuck and Ashley Elliot call “Switch Theory.”