Welcome to a new episode of the Marriage After God podcast, where we explore the pursuit of happiness in marriage. Are you seeking happiness in your relationship? Do you feel like joy is elusive in your marital life? Do you ever look at other couples and wonder why you can't experience the same level of happiness? Happiness is a universal pursuit. Many of us go to great lengths to experience and achieve happiness in life. We all yearn for that feeling of contentment, that regardless of what's going on, we feel good, we feel happy. In today's episode, we delve into why we are driven by the desire to experience true happiness and how to find it when it seems hard to come by. Our episode today is sponsored by The Marriage Gift: 365 Prayers For Our Marriage. This book, written by us, Aaron and Jennifer Smith, is a result of the positive response from hundreds of thousands of couples who have taken our marriage prayer challenge and gone through our 31-prayer for my husband and wife books. We believe prayer is one of the greatest gifts you can give to your marriage, hence the title, The Marriage Gift. You can pre-order your copy today at themarriagegift.com. In this episode, we also discuss our new book, The Marriage Gift, and share some personal experiences, including swim lessons for our younger kids and a heartwarming moment when our son Truett asked a friend if he knows God. We also delve into the topic of happiness, its definition, and how it varies from person to person. We explore a short film about a rat chasing happiness in New York, which serves as a metaphor for our relentless pursuit of happiness. The film shows that nothing lasts, and the feeling of happiness doesn't last either. You can watch the film here. We also discuss a study that found marriage to be the best predictor of happiness in America. You can read more about the study here. We delve into the importance of happiness in marriage and how it's not always about feeling happy. We share our experiences from our 16+ years of marriage, including the hard seasons and how we navigated through them. We discuss the role of happiness in marriage from a biblical perspective, referencing scriptures like Ecclesiastes 1:7-8, Romans 8:13, and Psalm 1:1-3. Finally, we share practical steps to grow happiness and satisfaction in marriage, and how true satisfaction in Christ affects our earthly relationships, including marriage. Tune in to this enlightening episode and join us on this journey towards finding true happiness in marriage.