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Just keep in mind, bickering is sin. All right? You don't have to bicker, you don't have to argue. You don't have to act in a manner that compromises that unity.

But how do you get there? You have to have that mindset yourself first. You have to believe what the Bible says about how you are supposed to be thinking about this marriage.

It's a unity, it's oneness, it's fellowship. This is focused on the family with Focus President and Dr. Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller and our guest today are Matt and Lisa Jacobson talking about having a deeper love in your marriage and how to rekindle that through everyday practices, habits and attitudes.

John, I'm excited to continue the conversation that we had last time. It kind of started us in a great direction about the importance of respecting and loving both our wives and wives respecting and loving their husbands. It works both ways.

And I think that was a great point out of last time. And I'm looking forward to today's discussion. You know, the curious thing about this, I do get energized around marriage discussions.

Now, do I always apply those things I'm hearing 100% no, people were imperfect people, but can I take a couple of steps, maybe several steps in the right direction? I think the answer to that is yes.

And last time we talked about deep in the heart stuff, like how do we how do we truly live with contentment with our spouse? And how do we put our relationship with Christ in that first place so that our hearts are right, that contentment is there.

And then stop owning our spouse's relationship with the Lord. That's between them and God. As Matt, our guests said last time, you know, he's not writing that mail to you. He's writing it to your spouse, meaning the Lord. So that's a good thing. And we don't want to intercept that mail that's intended for them. Right.

And today we're going to cover more topics related to our relationship in the marriage covenant. And I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. And Matt and Lisa are return guests. They're very involved in ministry and the Pacific Northwest. They've written a number of books. Today we'll be talking about a companion set of devotionals, which are called loving your husband, dwell and loving your wife. Well, these are 52 week devotionals designed to help you grow in your relationship. Stop by the website for details. So we've got the link.

In the show notes or call 800 the letter A and the word family. Matt and Lisa, welcome back. Thank you.

It's good to have you. I so enjoyed last time, even ending with the humor discussion, how important humor. I didn't mention that in the intro. But that's fun too. Laughing together is really important.

Kind of to provide that that cushion when things aren't as fun or laughable, you know, you can have those punctuated times of laughing together. Well, let's jump right back into the various topics. The next one I wanted to cover was conflict.

And the opposite of that I think would be unity and unity is so important in marriage. You know, I think it actually is easier to have unity and marriage than it is in parenting.

You know what I mean? Because parenting boy, you just come from a different perspective sometimes. One's a little easier, one's a little tougher on the rules, etc. But unity in all things is really, really critical.

So in that regard, how do we build unity and how do we not need to win every argument perhaps and agree with our spouse on most things?

Well, you know, one of the things that we find often and maybe you guys have experienced this too, but you can get in a pattern of kind of negative communication and just a little snippy little.

So those differences can become sort of the seedbed of disagreements and then snippiness and bickering and arguing. And yeah, you love each other. Yeah, you can stay marriage, but you've developed this culture in your home that is kind of negative. And you know, we just like to say, just keep in mind.

Bickering is sin. All right, you don't have to pick or you don't have to argue. You don't have to act in a manner that compromises that unity. But how do you get there? You have to have that mindset yourself.

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