Welcome to the Paul Tripp podcast, where pastor and bestselling author Dr. Paul David Tripp connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

Apart from your relationship with the Lord, your relationship with your spouse is the most important relationship in your life. In today's

episode, Paul is going to answer three more questions about marriage that can help you improve your

marriage today. First up, Paul answers the question, how do we handle disagreements in our marriage?

Here's Paul.

Couples often struggle with just having different opinions, desires, thoughts when it comes to making decisions in their marriage.

Let me just start by saying this. Difference is not a sign of a bad marriage.

You ready for this? Difference is a sign of a marriage. The goal in marriage is not uniformity. You will never, ever establish uniformity. If nothing else, then your spouse is a woman and you're a man or your spouse is a man and you're a woman. You have huge cultural background differences.

You will tend to look at things from a different perspective. And so the goal is not uniformity.

The goal is unity.

Unity is how you behave in the face of difference.

Now, God has wired difference into your marriage.

He's done that for his glory and your good.

We're meant to deal with those differences with appreciation and grace.

And that's the only way that you'll ever get to a unity of decision making.

The pathway to unity is appreciation. The pathway to unity is appreciation.

The pathway to unity is respect.

The pathway to unity is the humility

that perhaps I have something to learn that I don't know.

It's those character qualities

that allow you to arrive at mutual agreeable decisions.

If you go in thinking, my way is the right way, my way is the only way,

...