Alyssa suffered through 11 years of her husband's addiction, and she feared the worst.

After we had called focus on the family, that was really the journey where we started to see God moving and working. I know that focus on

the family was just an answered prayer. I'm Jim Daly. This season help us

give families hope and when you give today your donation will be doubled.

Donate at focus on the family.com slash gift.

Thank you for downloading the Focus on the Family Marriage Podcast. You can find more

relationship insights at focus on the family dot com slash marriage podcast.

This is John Fuller along with Dr. Greg Smolling. slash marriage start off their marriages with expectations that it's all going to be easy and just natural

hand-in-glove kind of stuff, but then, oh, careers, buying a house, having kids all kind of crowd in,

and the marriage goes by the wayside. Is that pretty common?

Very common. I think for most people we pursue each other until after the wedding

and then we put the marriage on autopilot cruise control. after the

you talk about the wedding and then we put the marriage on autopilot cruise control to be able to invest in all those things that that you talk about and that's the actual formula

for being in a roommate marriage.

You know, marriage isn't self-sustaining.

You have to nurture that along the way.

Yeah.

Well, we're going to hear some great insights about doing that very thing, nurturing and having a thriving marriage.

Dr. Gary Chapman talked with Jim Daly, and he specifically addressed some of the challenges that happen when babies come along.

Gary, so often, especially for young couples, a wife that's feeling perhaps isolated or not connected

like she once was with her husband.

They may think having a baby will draw them closer together,

...