What are you doing to make it better?
This week in the Dispatch:
Quick Hits: Music, Summer Questions and More Would You Rather
“Life On A Knife’s Edge” in Books
Love: 1-10 in this Week’s Blog
This Week’s YouVersion Plan helps you affair proof your marriage: “Infidelity: Part 1”
Our podcast series on communication continues with a look at “Touch Points”
This week’s vlog looks at “How Pride Affects Your Marriage”
Insights: How to “Make It Better”
This Week’s Quick Hits:
Music
The Number 1 song on June 24th, 10 Years Ago, and Counting!
2011 - “Rolling In The Deep,” Adele
2001 - “Lady Marmalade,” Christina Aguilera
1991 - “Rush Rush,” Paula Abdul
1981 - “Bette Davis Eyes,” Kim Carnes
1971 - “It’s Too Late/I Feel The Earth Move,” Carole King
1961 - “Quarter To Three,” Gary U.S. Bonds
1951 - “How High The Moon,” Les Paul and Mary Ford
And finally, in 1941, six months before the United States entered World War II - “Daddy” by Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye and the Kaye Choir
Pick 1
Which song spent three weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1985?
“Shout” by Tears for Fears
“Papa Don’t Preach” by Madonna
True or false: Watermelon consists of over 90 percent water.
True
False
In what city is the ice cream sandwich believed to be invented?
St. Louis
New York City
A typical Chicago-style hot dog has which of these toppings on it?
Tomato slices
Sauerkraut
Before they were used as a flying disc, Frisbees were originally invented as what household item?
A dinner plate
A pie tin
More Summer Would You Rather:
....surf the waves or read a book?
…run through a field of sunflowers or paddle down a river?
…make friends with a dolphin or with a llama?
…eat only hamburgers all summer or only watermelon all summer?
…take part in a water balloon fight or get invited to a piñata party?
…go to the mountains for the summer or go to the beach?
…go white water rafting or zip lining?
…eat ice cream everyday or s’mores every night?
Read:
Life On A Knife's Edge by Dr. Rahul Jandial
If you ever had surgery, did you wonder what your surgeon was thinking? Rahul Jandial is one of the world’s leading brain surgeons and in this book, he lets us inside his. He shares his thoughts while performing surgery, when he makes a critical mistake, the strength and courage he sees in his patients and the lessons he has learned from them. Many patients come to him as a last hope of gaining more time. Overall the book is about survival: as a surgeon and as a patient. I listened to the audio book which was read by Dr. Jandial, and I could feel his emotion as he read.
WARNING: As good as I think this book is, it contains very graphic surgery details, so this may not be a book for many of you.
Blog
This week I also have a new blog. It is the first in a short series, called “One to Ten, Part 1. I look at what it takes for a marriage to be a 10 out of 10.
YouVersion Plan:
This plan is really not for couples whose marriage is currently affected by infidelity. This six-day plan is designed to help couples look seriously at their marriage and take steps to protect and strengthen it together. With infidelity at epidemic proportions in our culture, I think this plan is a must for every couple.
Listen:
Achieving Awesome Communication: Touch Points and the Small Stuff
In this week’s podcast, Christina and I are talking about touch points. These are the small, daily communication that matters a lot but that we don’t pay enough attention to. I talk about touch points a lot and today you’ll learn WHY I think they are so important.
Watch:
This week on the Awesome Marriage YouTube channel, I take a look at pride. How does it affect you and your marriage? Is there “good” pride? What exactly is God's design for our pride? Please join me!
Insights:
What Are You Doing to Make It Better?
The Beatles’ song “Hey Jude” was popular when Nancy and I were dating . Because it was a Beatles song, it still is. “Hey Jude” was never really “our song” but we both loved it and always turned the volume up when it came on the radio. (We do have a couple of songs that we consider “our songs,” but “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers has been our number one for a long time!)
The first verse of “Hey Jude” says:
“Hey Jude, don't make it bad / Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart / Then you can start to make it better”
What are you doing right now as a couple to make your marriage better? If you’re not actively doing anything, you might want to consider setting some reasonable goals for your marriage in order to get you started. I believe a marriage is either moving forward or backwards. A marriage just does not stay in neutral, so if we want our marriages to grow, we must choose to be intentional in a positive way in our marriages every day.
One idea is to create a list together of the things that are important to you in your marriage. Start by making your lists separately. Then come together with your lists and combine them into one list. Look at your combined list together and pray for God’s wisdom in this process. Next, add to the list anything that you want to exist in your marriage that is not there now. You now have a blueprint for your marriage.
Next, separate the items on your list into three groups—daily, short-term, and long-term. Daily items are the things you can do each day to show love, help each other out, enrich each other’s lives and grow your marriage. Short-term items are the things you would like to build into your marriage over the next year. And long-term items are the things that you want to build into your marriage over the next five to ten years.
It will take both of you being intentional in your marriage every day to accomplish these. What happens today truly affects where your marriage will be in ten years. You just cannot make your list, then set it aside, and in nine years and six months pick it up and “cram” for six months and expect to get there. It won’t work that way. So, as you look at your list, discuss what each of you will specifically do to help build these goals into your marriage. Write down your commitments so you have some built in accountability. Encourage each other in what you are doing. Every six months, look at your lists and see how you are doing. You can always change or update your lists. If you follow through, your marriage will be better tomorrow, in a year, in five years, and in ten years. You will be developing positive marriage habits that will last a lifetime. There is no better time than now to put your marriage as a priority and work together to make it awesome.
Challenge and Next Steps
Read through today’s Insights together again and then follow through with all of my suggestions. Send me an email at drkim@awesomemarriage.com and let me know how it goes!
Pick 1:
“Shout” by Tears for Fears
True
New York City
Tomato Slices
A pie tin
*Some links are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Every dollar made goes directly to the ministry of Awesome Marriage to help couples build awesome marriages. We only promote products we truly recommend.