Year Eight + Our Best Marriage Advice!

She’s always right. You’re always wrong…just kidding! Kale is being super funny as we think up some of our favorite marriage tips.

This year, we celebrated year eight with an amazing dinner date at Madeline’s, our favorite fancy little spot downtown Evansville, where we also shared our second date as a couple! We invited our good friends AJ and Christine to join us and oh my goodness we had such an amazing time. After dinner, we went to the Thunderbolts game at the Ford Center and got to ring in the new year with fireworks over ice.

Ok….now for the fun! Our marriage advice is below. Even if you aren’t married yet, you can never have enough advice to get through a beautiful marriage together in the future!

1:) When you get angry at each other {it will happen} take 5. This is an exercise we learned during our second year of marriage when we went on a marriage retreat at French Lick. It’s better to take 5 minutes and walk away to cool down than it is to say something really hateful or rude. I love the take 5! ~ Kale

2:) Surround yourself with friends who support and strengthen your marriage. Since Kale and I married nine years ago, our friends list has dwindled quite a bit. And we are both absolutely ok with that. We both had many single friends and married friends who, honestly, were just too wild for our marriage or maybe it was bearing the load of their problems as a couple. Maybe they didn’t believe in a godly marriage or maybe their lifestyle was just not our style anymore. For so many reasons, we just needed to cut some people out. We love the tight circle of friends we have in our lives today who fully support and strengthen our marriage. Their values are the same as ours. ~ Sharin

3:) Make time for each other a priority. Life gets really busy. It always will. Taking the time to do something together even if it’s snuggling on the couch, phone put away and on silent and a movie in the dvd player can be an amazing way to unwind and connect. Your time together does not have to be fancy. ~ Sharin

4:) Don’t be afraid to make time for yourself. Yes, you’re married and you love spending time together but we feel that it is also really important to spend time alone or with friends too. ~ Kale

5:) Never be afraid to seek outside help. We are super open with the fact that we go to marriage counseling when the need arises. There have been a few times where Sharin and I just weren’t on the same page as a couple or as parents. We talk and if we can’t work through a problem, we call our church. We set up an appointment with our counselor at CFC and within the hour, we’ve gotten it all off our chests and have a solution. Then as soon as we are done with our session, we go on a date. Its always great excuse to go on a date. ~ Kale

To end out our post we are sharing one of our favorite marriage verses!!

“So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate” – Matthew 19:6 ~ Sharin

“For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.” – Ephesians 5:25 ~ Kale