EP 77. Genuine Love in Marriage; We Belong Together; 6 Vital Ways of Loving Your Spouse (4 of 6)

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We're Greg and Linda Smith, your hosts from Raleigh, North Carolina.

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Now, in today's episode, we are continuing this series on genuine love and marriage.

Today's gonna be about we belong together.

Six vital ways of loving your spouse.

This is part four of six.

Ecclesiastes 9 is our foundation scripture for genuine love which says enjoy life with your spouse whom you love every day of your life.

Now that's a good promise from God that as we're walking in love every day with our spouse, developing daily habits which we've talked about this scripture and the other episodes on love, it says enjoy life.

So just set your expectations that God's wanting you to enjoy your marriage.

And we're sharing these six principles regarding regarding vital ways of loving your spouse.

And as you're following those, and we're going to go into that in more detail in a few moments that you can enjoy your life.

So there's hope for you.

And if you're doing good right now, we'll just take these different six areas that we're looking at and do a little checklist.

How am I doing in this?

How am I doing in this?

Because you know what with the days, life and the environment we're in, the marriage busters come in.

And if we're not being aware of what's going on, we can slowly slip back into our old habits, old routines and before long we're bordering line bordering on being roommates or just have an existing marriage.

And that's not what God's plan is.

Now in episode 69 and 70 and number 76, we began explaining the different ways of loving your spouse.

And there's six of them.

And right now I'm just going to give you the names and hopefully I don't chop up the words because they're Hebrew and Greek.

Yeah, they're hard to it.

Yes.

So the one of them is Agape love, another one is Ahava another One says another one is Eros.

And then Epithumia and Phileo and Stoge.

Wow, you did good.

Oh, I did, didn't I?

So far we've covered Ahave love in episodes 69 and 70, and then Flejo love, which is Best friends in episode 76.

So we encourage you, if you haven't listened to those, go and listen to them now.

These words are Hebrew and Greek words, and they're really just different definitions of love which impacts our marriage.

All of these are needed for the success of our love life in our marriage.

And you can't just pick out one or two of them and then disregard the rest because they all work together.

Yes.

For us to be able to love the way God wants us to love it, it's like a recipe.

You have to put all the ingredients in that recipe for it to taste good or it ends up tasting yucky.

Yeah.

That makes me think of the story of little kids where the parents put some vegetables on the plate.

They put a little bit of meat and maybe a little cookie and a bread.

And they say, you got to clean your plate and you can, you can have your treat, your dessert.

And that's just what God is saying, hey, I'm putting all these different six things, these different areas of love on your plate, and you need to eat all of these different elements and then you'll be able to have your dessert tonight.

But no, we want to put the spinach off or we want to take that off.

And what happens?

We're not getting the nutrition we need in our bodies if we don't eat what we're supposed to eat.

But that's what's God saying.

Hey, if you don't add your filet o love with your agape love and the rest of them, then you're not going to experience everything you're supposed to have.

And another example here that I like is a car has six cylinders.

Most of our cars that they have six cylinders, and if they're all running smooth and firing properly, that car is going to be smooth running.

But what happens when you get a spark plug or some other component of that car where that one one cylinder is not working, the car can stutter, it can lose power and just not be functioning to high peak performance.

And that's what happens in our marriages.

If we're not applying these six areas, you could see those as spark plugs in our marriage.

And if we're not doing fileto, and here's just a snapshot of each one as we get into the more depth of this fileto is warm friendship and companionship.

It's being best friends again.

We covered that in 76.

Another one, which we're going to go over in future podcast episodes is Eros, that's romantic and physical attraction in love.

Another one, which we just covered last or we're covering today is Storge, which is natural family affection, security and belonging.

Another one is Agape, selfish being, selfless, sacrificial love that seeks the other's highest good and more.

And then another one is epithemia, which means strong desire, longing, craving and earnest.

And we're coming to that in the next couple weeks.

And then Ahava, which we, we covered in 69 and 70 episodes.

It means, it means commitment, devotion, affection, care, self giving, concern for one another.

So if you're not operating in all six of these on a regular basis, then you're going to be misfiring in your marriage and that's not good to have.

So as we review these, let's work on getting these working in our lives so we can be at peak performance in our marriages.

Well, when all the six are present, then marriage becomes more than a romantic relationship.

Right?

Right.

It becomes like a lifeline covenant, a lifelong covenant that's marked by friendship, affection, commitment and Christ like love.

Yes, that's right.

And it's a recipe like Linda said.

And, and when we got all these going, it just, it just makes our marriage a place where fairy tales can come true.

Now, it doesn't mean you don't have to deal with some dragons, but you're together as a team, you're unified.

And part of our mission with married and love it is this one statement.

It's in one of our notebooks.

It says husbands and wives should be able to say that they are married and love it.

That means if somebody ask them, oh, how's your marriage going?

You, I love being marriage.

My husband and I, or my wife and I, we are doing great, we're having fun together and so forth.

But you can say you're married and love it, that their marriage relationship is, wow, exciting, fresh, sizzling and rewarding and strong for them.

To be best friends, lovers and partners in life.

To be in pursuit of goals and dreams together that they can stay unified.

When the storms of life come, man, the enemy wants to come in and cause the vision.

Sometimes it's not because you're arguing over where the underwear goes or who left the kitchen sink a mess.

It he comes in with trials and tribulations, so to speak.

Sickness, disease, or money problems and he tries to put a wedge in there.

And it's staying unified when that happens, that they can pass through the seasons of marriage in life and be able to say that they are married and love it.

So that's what all this is about.

It's about you operating on six cylinders and just being wow and sizzling with your spouse.

Now, before we move on, I just want to take a moment and encourage you to sign up for our newsletter.

If you're not getting our newsletter at the bottom, you can go in at the bottom of our show notes and we'll have a link in our show notes where you can just hit that button and it'll take you where you can get on our newsletter and get some marriage tips and some updates about what we got going on.

And then also share this episode.

If you're getting blessed out of this episode from any of our episodes, you can actually share each episode with somebody that you think would benefit from it.

And then I'm going to do a little peek on our homework.

If you're not been listening, if you've been listening, but okay, we get down to announcements and you just turn this off or you don't keep listening.

We always have part of our homework is the 10 second kiss.

And if you haven't heard this before, maybe you're the day's your first time listening.

I'll give it to you a little bit earlier than usual.

But what that is is we encourage couples to kiss.

And part of that is for you, maybe best time is the morning to start this.

You just see your spouse in the kitchen and you go, hey honey, come over here.

And you say, hey Siri, set my temp, set my timer for 10 seconds.

And you just pull them over and give them a good old juicy kiss for 10 seconds.

You may think, oh man, that' what's that going to do?

You'll be surprised.

Some mornings that might be just a little weenie kiss, but sometimes it could be a kiss that sets you on fire for the rest of the day.

So check it out and try it.

That sounds like a good idea.

Yes.

All right, well, let's look at today's word.

Now it's store day and that definition refers to natural affection, the deep instinct of love that exists within a family.

It describes the bond between parents and children, siblings and close relatives, and husband and wife.

Now this is unlike the romantic love storge is characterized with being familiar with loyalty, tenderness and a sense of belonging.

And a scripture that goes with this is Romans 21:10.

That says to be.

It says to be devoted to one another in love.

And that's what Storge is talking about.

It's family.

It's being devoted to one another, sticking together.

So be devoted to one another in love and honor one another above yourselves.

And be devoted.

That term, be devoted, comes from two Greek words, phileo and storge, and that together means to love one another with tender family affection.

So regarding a Christian marriage, though, a husband and wife should develop family affection.

Right?

Right.

Yeah.

And that love that grows from living life together becomes steady, dependable, and nurturing.

Yes.

Right, Right.

So this kind of love includes feeling safe, right?

Now, that's.

That's a word you hear a lot.

I know.

Yeah.

People say, feel safe.

I want my safe space.

And that's what Stoge brings to your marriage.

That means accepted with one another, being loyal through both joyful and difficult seasons, caring for each other's daily needs, creating a home where both spouses feel secure and valid, valued.

Yes.

Remaining committed even when emotions fluctuate.

Wow.

Like, for example, a husband notices that his wife is tired and helps.

So he.

He helps with household responsibilities without being asked.

He's aware what's going on and he jumps in.

Yes.

Yeah, he jumps in.

That's family.

That's what family's all about.

Right.

A wife comforts her husband after he's had a difficult day, offering encouragement and reassurance, you know, so she's kind of there to be supportive.

Right.

And help them through difficult season.

He might be going through it with his job.

And also, both spouses make time for each other, building habits of kindness and thoughtfulness over many years that they've been married.

Or maybe not so many years they've been married.

But, yeah, I think that just shows right there about being intentional and be aware of your spouse and operating in kindness.

But that last part says developed over many years.

See, when you first get married, it takes time for the store gate to develop.

All of these different actions that we're talking about.

Love take time.

It takes you learning.

Learning and implying God's word takes you decreasing in your spouse, increasing in your life.

In other words, you slowly, you're.

You're moving from what about me?

What about me?

To what about we?

What about us?

Yeah, what about my spouse?

What about us?

Sometimes that can happen quickly, or it might happen in one area, but you got another area over here that.

That's.

That's holding on to the old ways.

So it's that coming together as a family.

Yeah.

You're having to learn each other.

Yeah.

And family.

Some of y' all can relate to your families.

I. I grew up as the only child, so I had nobody to be loyal to other than my mom and dad and your little family and my little poodle.

I didn't have brothers and sisters that had my back or I had their back, you know, and I just had my parents.

I didn't even really have any other family living near where I was at.

Linda had six.

I think it was six.

I lost count.

Family, siblings.

So she may have had more of a family thing.

But I.

But I think about that crazy, chaotic family thing.

Right.

You know, and different families have different dynamics.

But I think about the perfect team TV family.

We.

If you've ever watched Blue Bloods, I mean, they came together.

They, they.

They supported one another.

They were there for one another.

They had meals together, they were sharing.

They were getting involved in each other's life, and they knew they had each other's back, Knew no matter what took place.

And that's the way God wants it in our.

Our marriage relationships, you know, with.

With your family, but also between that husband and wife.

And it starts with the husband and wife.

It does.

So if you came from broken family, families that didn't have any of this, this might be a little tougher for you to grab a hold of the store.

Gay.

You know, and it's vital.

If you.

You can just see what Linda just read about, what it includes.

It is very powerful and a strong foundation for your family.

Now I want to read an excerpt from the book Love Life for Every Married Couple by Ed Wheat.

This book was written back in the 70s when Linda and I just was getting married.

And it's a little bit here, but I want you to see what happened in this family when they learned about storge and about the power of belonging.

So it starts off, and they say, on the way to our June wedding, we thought we had everything going for us.

Can you relate to that?

Yeah.

Our friendship was warm, our romantic feelings even warmer.

And as for the fires of passion, they were just waiting for the match.

After we settled into married life, the companionship and sexual desire and the romantic thrills were still there, but it was all a little less perfect than we had expected because we were such imperfect people.

The pink glow of romance hadn't prepared us for that.

We weren't Christians then, so we didn't know about.

We didn't know that agape love would be the glue to hold us together.

Fortunately, something else brought us through Those first rocky years when wedded bliss almost got burned, buried under the unbliss, you might call.

What developed between us was a sense of belonging.

We had decided right from the start that it was us against the world.

Two people forming a majority of one.

So whatever happened, or however much we think clashed in private, we stuck by each other.

We were like a brother and sister on the playground.

We might scrap with each other, but let an outsider try to horn in and he had to take us both on.

If one of us hurt the other, wiped away the tears.

We had a habit of believing in each other while our careers got off the ground.

We showed each other all the kindness that too impatient young people could be expected to show.

And then some more.

It really wasn't long until we discovered something stupendous about our relationship.

We found out we belonged.

We came first with each other and always would because we belong to each other.

No one could spoil our love and togetherness from the outside.

Only we could do that.

And we weren't about to.

It was too good to lose.

A lot of people seem to spend their whole life looking for a feeling of belonging.

Maybe they don't know that marriage is the best place to find it.

Now we're gonna take a deep dive into to what belonging looks like in store gay love.

Okay, so what belonging in a marriage looks like would look like would be this.

It means I'm yours and you're mine and we are in this together.

It's the feeling of being known, accepted, valued, safe.

There's that word again.

And connected with your spouse.

Now, Genesis 2, verse 24 through 25 kind of puts all this from the scripture.

For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked and they weren't ashamed.

So that kind of puts that in there with a sense of belonging.

Right?

That's right.

And you know, it talks about they were both naked and weren't ashamed.

That's part of belonging, as we've already talked about.

And going to look at you, may you kind of bear your soul to your spouse, vulnerable.

And they don't look at you and say, oh, you know, I don't like what you said, or I don't like what you're going through, or I don't like you naked or whatever.

They weren't ashamed.

They were naked.

They.

They opened up their life to one another.

And for them, it wasn't just that they were physically Naked.

Right.

They were naked.

Emotionally, you know.

Right.

And so.

And all of that.

I don't think the finances were involved too much then, but they were emotionally naked before each other.

That's part of it.

That's what.

Right.

That's where people have to learn to open up.

And some people.

Some people have done that through their marriage.

When they were younger, they did that, or when they were kids, they got shut up and they got put in a box or whatever.

And a lot of people don't know how to do that.

That's why marriages come under so much attack, because people come in with this baggage, all this.

They don't.

They're afraid to open up.

They hold things in and.

And then if their spouse, once they start to.

To open up and the spouse goes, well, that's stupid for you to feel like that or, I don't know, just get over what your parents did or your friends did or what happened to you.

Just get over it.

Well, what happens?

That just makes.

Closes them up.

It closes them up.

Right.

It closes them up.

So get naked with your spouse than one open and then accept your spouse when they do that.

Right.

All right.

All their imperfections and all that.

You know that you don't feel like you have to earn your spouse's love, right?

Yes.

And it says, cleave to your wife or cleave to your spouse.

That's not just the physical union, but cleaving is that intertwining of your spirit and your soul and your body as you start to cleave with one another.

So that's mentally, emotionally, and physically, and even spiritually.

All of that comes in to coming together with your spouse so you can become one flesh.

And that leads to what?

Belonging.

So let's look at some key elements of belonging.

The first one we're going to look at is acceptance.

It says, I can be myself with you, even with my imperfections.

Kind of what we just talked about.

In other words, I don't have to earn your love.

Just like Linda.

I can still act like a jerk sometimes, or maybe I don't do something right around the house, or maybe I make a mistake in some area of our life.

And I know I can know that she is still going to love me and accept me, not because of how I act up, but because who I am.

I'm her husband and we're put together by God.

And she says, you know what?

I accept you, even though these things are happening.

Then the next one is security.

You're committed to me even when we Disagree.

Our life is difficult.

That means you're not going to pick up and run Your spouse, you know, they're going to stay there with you.

They're not going to leave, even if the difficult times come.

Maybe I'm not talking about just leaving because they want to leave the marriage, but they're going to stay in the fight with you.

They're not going to leave you out there alone.

You know, you've got somebody in your corner.

You've.

You've got security there.

And the next one is feeling safe.

You feel emotionally safe enough to be honest, vulnerable, and yourself.

You don't have to constantly fear rejection, ridicule, or abandonment.

So you got two things.

Number one, you've got to have somebody in a relationship that feels safe enough to put everything on the table, but then the other spouse has to be mature enough, not the ridicule, not to reject them and not to abandon them.

So it takes two pretty mature people to develop emotional security in your relationship.

And I would say go back and look in our podcast at the beginning episodes.

We've got one that's better you, better marriage, and it talks about this.

So look at, Take a look at that.

All right, so being safe.

What's next, Linda?

Well, the.

Another key element would be connection.

We're partners.

We're not just two people living under the same roof.

We're staying emotionally engaged and interested in each other's lives.

Now, like a roommate, they're not really emotionally engaged in a roommate.

You know what I'm saying?

So that connection is a key element.

And then known, your spouse knows what makes you happy, what makes what worries you, what you might enjoy and what matters to you.

And you can talk openly without having to pretend.

So in that, I have to just say that you study your spouse.

Okay.

And you get to know them, you know, so that you understand them.

That's part of belonging.

And then valued.

My thoughts, my feelings, my needs and dreams, they really matter to you.

That's right.

It really makes a difference that, that you value what I'm thinking, you value what my feelings may be ever, even though they're ever changing.

And the needs that I have and the dreams that are important to me.

Right.

I think, yeah, I think that's very important because first of all, you're.

You feel like sharing those, and that's, that's.

That's the most important.

But then that means about, say I'm listening to Linda.

I need to be giving her my attention.

Yeah.

That comes back down to, are you listening?

Or when Somebody's talking and they're sharing something deep that's going on or what they're feeling about a situation, maybe it's a hurt offense or something that's going on in their family or whatever.

Are you listening?

Do you, do you get curious with them?

Do they say, oh, I had a bad day at the house and at home, or had a mishap at the grocery store with some, something, something fell off a shelf, whatever.

And do you get, do you get curious when they say they had a bad day?

Do you say, well, what went on?

Tell me about it.

And then you just let them talk.

You take an interest.

If they, they say they're feeling excited about something that's going to be, happen that they're involved in, say, well, what are you looking forward to?

What's going on?

Tell me about it.

Maybe we can do it together.

See, it's, it's taking interest and listening and being curious and asking questions.

Then the other one about being known is in order for us to be known, we got to be willing to share.

You know, it's a two way street again, everything comes back to communication skills.

It really does got to be communicating.

So let's move on.

Loyalty.

Now, this is a good one.

You are my spouse and I will protect and honor our relationship, especially during the difficult times.

Man, that is so.

I mean, there's a lot of little things that can go on during the day, but I tell you what, stuff is going to hit.

Linda and I have gone through a lot this last 13, 14 years with all the different physical attacks we've had and some other stuff going on.

And we've been loyal to each other.

I've been loyal to take care of her, she's taken care of me.

We've been loyal to each other when, when we've had some different issues we've had to deal with.

And we stay committed to our goals, our dreams, into each other.

I'm committed to see Linda get healed and get through what she's worked on.

She's committed to me.

And we're always there.

We always believe in each other and we will always be there for each other.

And that's what God is calling us, to be loyal to one another.

The next one is togetherness.

Your joys and struggles matter to me because they matter to us.

Decisions and challenges become ours rather than always being yours and mine.

We're together, together.

Yeah, I like that we're together together.

And everything we do, it's not you or me, are we?

And it's it is we.

It's not individuals, but we are together.

We are belonging to one another.

We're together.

Together.

When we.

When you joined hands at the.

The altar, you said your vows, you held your hands.

That's togetherness.

That's saying we're in this journey together.

Yeah.

And we should be best friends.

As we talked about last week, and last but not least is intimacy, and there's all sorts of intimacies, but right here, it just says, I can open my heart to you.

We've kind of already talked about this.

It says I can open my heart to you and share myself with you emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

I tell you what.

When Linda opens her heart to me or I open my heart to you, we're bearing.

We are stepping out of a comfort zone.

Zone.

We're laying it all out there to our.

Our spouse.

And you know what?

We owe it to them to treat their emotions, whether they're spiritual, physical, physically, whatever, to treat those with respect, to love them with.

For them to do that for us and to.

To.

To be there, to listen, to care, and be a blessing to them.

Well, First Corinthians 13, 4 through 8.

I think that puts it all in perspective right there.

Let me read that.

Yeah, yeah.

This is for.

For everybody, in case you're not familiar,.

And I think this is the one where you kind of do it as a confession, right?

Yes.

Love confession is what I call it.

And it's First Corinthians 13, 4 through 8.

And it says, God is love, and the love of God is in me.

Therefore I endure long, and I am patient and kind.

And I would say towards Greg, I'm patient and kind.

I'm never envious or jealous.

Well, I have to take a pause right there.

We just found out that Greg is going to have cataract surgery, and his surgeon said, you're not going to have to wear glasses if you do that.

And I had cataract surgery, and I still have to wear glasses.

And I'm like, what?

You're kidding me.

I'm.

I'm jealous.

So I have to apply that scripture right there.

I'm not going to be jealous about the fact that he doesn't have to wear glasses anymore.

That's so awesome.

Papers.

They said I do have to wear papers.

Maybe if you want.

Close up.

Yeah.

Okay, let's move on.

I'm not boastful or proud.

I am never haughty, selfish or rude.

I'm never irritable or touchy.

I'm never resentful and I don't hold grudges.

Here we go.

I hardly even notice when others may do wrong.

I expect and believe the best of every person.

That would be Greg.

And I will defend Greg no matter what anyone else may say.

The love of God in me never fails.

Therefore I never fail.

Love is my greatest aim.

So this is something that we should be aiming for regularly in our marriage.

All of that what the love confession states.

Yeah, the last three or four verses there really talk about being together and how we treat people.

Now there was something you said.

I expect the best.

Yes.

And believe the best.

You know, we can expect.

I expect Linda to be a Proverbs 31 woman, so to speak.

But that's not that I'm putting a, a command or anything on her, but in my mind way I can expect that is.

I can be praying for her.

I can.

Baby, that's good.

I can be praying for God to show her how to love me better.

Yeah, to be a better mom or whatever.

But it's not out of being bossy or critical.

It's just praying God strengthen her today while she's doing what she needs to do or whatever.

You're praying and then speaking God's word over your spouse.

In other words, you're praying God's word over your expectations for them.

That's good.

Maybe if they got a weak area where they've got their struggling at work or there's something going on, you can be believing the best in them that they're going to get that promotion or they're going to be able to do this with their kids or they're going to be better in certain areas.

So it's not that you're being haughty about it as we brought out, but it's just believing the best.

You're speaking God's word, you're praying over that.

So that's kind of how that expectation you don't come in.

Well, I expect my husband to come in and, and pick up the dishes as soon as he walks in the door.

No, that's wrong.

You can say God, I just, I just ask that you would open Greg.

She could say, I asked that you would open Greg's eyes so that he could see some of the needs that I have in my life and he's going to be open and, and take action on him because he's going to see.

So you're, you're being positive, so to speak.

That's good.

So as we begin to wind down here when all of our stoge principles are being Applied it brings a sense of belonging.

Yeah.

Which is even deeper than just people that are just quote married because without Stowe going on in the marriage, you can share your house, you could share your finances, even responsibilities and even quote b a family that goes out to eat and everybody seems smiley face and all that, yet you can still feel alone and emotionally disconnected.

That's right.

You see, when you've had that belonging, you have stoge.

That is an insurance that we are no longer living as two individuals.

Which that's basically what roommates are belonging.

Says, I know you, I accept you, I value you, I am safe with you, I am connected to you, and I choose you.

And we are in this together.

What does Ecclesiastes say about all that?

Kind of brings it all together, doesn't it?

Yes.

Ecclesiastes 4, 9, 12 says two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

So when you, when you're both working on your marriage together, says you're, you're.

You've got a great return on that.

You're going to see good things happen.

For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion.

We talked about that last week and in being best friends.

But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Unfortunately, that can happen in a lot of families and that's what married and love it's all about.

To get it where you're together.

Together.

Yes.

Furthermore, if two lay down together to they keep warm.

But how can one be warm alone?

And if one can overpower him who was alone, two can resist them.

And this is a, this is the God factor right here.

A quarter, three strands is not quickly torn apart.

That's having a couple bring God into their relationship.

Yeah, that's good.

That is really good.

Well, we do have a few honey do's.

One, create a daily moment of connection.

Ask your spouse, how are you really doing today?

I mean, sit down and really ask your spouse, how are you doing today?

And listen to them without interrupting, correcting or rushing in to fix it.

Now that's the tough part.

Wow, that's a tough part in it.

Guys are so much.

Here, let me tell you how to fix that.

And they don't usually.

It's just they need a sounding board.

Yeah.

Sometimes the wives try to do sometimes.

Yeah.

Number two, practice belonging with your words.

Like you could say things like I'm for you.

We're in this together.

You matter to me.

Those are some kind of statements that you could make.

Those Are good work.

Those are.

That's really good because sometimes somebody just says, I'm for you.

You're walking out the door and your.

Your spouse knows you got something going on today, and you say, you know what?

I'm for you.

I'm rooting for you.

Yeah, we're in this.

Cheerleader.

Yeah.

Be their cheerleader.

Third one would be do one thoughtful act of care each day.

Between now and our next podcast, think about doing this one.

Act of care.

Help with the responsibility that's need to be done.

Offer encouragement.

Prepare something that your spouse enjoys or meet a need without being asked.

That's right.

That's good.

And number four, build emotional safety.

Make your marriage a place where honesty is welcomed by responding with patience, tenderness, and respect.

All these are part of Storgy Storge.

Did I say it right?

Storge Love.

You know, and these are just little things for you to be thinking of, to remind yourself to be doing through the week.

You know, all of this.

And we haven't said it in the series that much, but right now, after reading these four honeydews, you know what we're talking about?

That's what we talk about a lot, is put on love.

Put on love.

That's good.

It's gotta.

You gotta.

When you don't.

Sometimes when you're not feeling together today, you gotta put on love and say, you know what, we belong together.

What can I do to keep our togetherness going today?

Like, and it says, build emotional safety.

Make your marriage a place where honesty is welcome by responding with what your spouse is telling you.

Something.

You put on patience, you put on tenderness, you put on respect.

Yeah.

So it's called putting on love.

And that will help you have that belonging, feeling.

That's good.

And have it in your life.

That's good.

I like that.

Oh, and the last homework part we already talked about, it's the ten second kiss.

So grab your spouse and get that taken care of.

Done.

Well, I am so glad that y' all joined us today.

Your feedback matters to us and we'd love to hear what.

If you have any comments or if you have questions, we'd love to answer those.

And also we would like to know if there's topics that you would like to cut us to cover in our future podcast episodes.

Okay.

But now you can text us, voicemail, or email us, and the phone number and email address is going to be in our show notes.

So no matter where you may be in your marriage, whether you're celebrating joyful moments or you're walking through a difficult season.

We would love to pray for you.

So if you have a prayer request, send it to us.

Don't hesitate.

Reach out to us.

It'd be our privilege to stand and believe with you for your marriage.

And again, thanks for joining us.

I hope you've gotten inspired by today's message.

We're going to see you next time.

And until then, remember, you can be married and love it on purpose.