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Emotional Intimacy

A husband comforting his grieving wife as she sits on a couch with her hands covering her face, illustrating how to support a grieving spouse with empathy and care.

How to Support a Grieving Spouse

Whenever we experience loss, we become vulnerable to getting stuck in the grief process. We need to grieve to restore balance. A husband or wife can provide healing for a grieving spouse.

A couple having a tense conversation at home, capturing emotional strain and disconnection that can occur when your spouse has past trauma.

When Your Spouse Struggles With Trauma

A spouse can bring pain, triggers and irrational responses to a marriage when he or she has experienced trauma that’s unresolved. But with love and commitment, his or her spouse can learn to help.

Middle-aged couple in a loving embrace

Men’s Sex Drive After 50: What Wives Need to Know

Your husband’s sex drive changes as he ages, and illness can also affect it. But an encouraging wife can make a big difference.

A husband twirling his wife as they dance on the beach to rekindle their relationship.

5 Ways You Can Rekindle Your Relationship with Your Spouse

As Christians, we know that staying close to Jesus requires time and effort. So why do we think we can take our spouse for granted? Try these four ways to rekindle your relationship.

Couple hugging with sunset in background, and seeking God's help in keeping a pure marriage.

Naked and Unashamed: Keeping a Pure Marriage

Differing perspectives and fears about our imperfections can make Biblical intimacy challenging. Learn how to develop pure intimacy in your marriage through embracing your differences.

Understanding Biased Perceptions

If you are seriously attracted to someone other than your spouse, chances are you’re seeing that person in an unrealistic light.

Looking for Weeds and Noticing Your Green Grass

When you are attracted to another, use these two strategies to protect yourself and your marriage.

Nourish: Treat Your Spouse in Valuable Ways

When you treat your spouse with compassion, it creates a safe environment to share your deepest thoughts and feelings.

A young couple enjoy a loving embrace in a summertime sunset. You, too, can enjoy emotional intimacy with your spouse if you're willing to invest the time being vulnerable with each other and with God.

5 Steps to Emotional Intimacy with Your Spouse

Here are five ways you can form a deeper connection with your spouse and God.

A man and woman lie in bed, backs to each other. Of all the sexual secrets that couples carry, one of the most painful is when the husband isn't interested in sex. Here are some tips to help.

When Your Husband Isn’t Interested in Sex

When a husband isn’t interested in sex, it can be a source of shame, doubt, and frustration in a marriage. Here are some of the common causes of this issue and some tips on how to address them.

A man and a woman touch foreheads in a close, intimate moment in the park. Intimacy depends on how much we’re willing to reveal about ourselves beneath the surface. Here's how truth leads to intimacy with your spouse.

The Truth Leads to Intimacy with Your Spouse

Intimacy with your spouse means being completely open to them — emotionally, spiritually, and physically. This type of vulnerability comes with risk but one worth taking.

A woman sits on the edge of the bed with her head in her hand, as if stressed out. Her husband sits on the other end, trying to talk to her. Here are some tips to deal with past abortions in marriage.

How to Deal With a Past Abortion in Marriage

If you’ve been through an abortion in the past, keeping it from your spouse can cause even more pain. Here are several ways you and your spouse can deal with a past abortion.

Couple Developing Emotional Intimacy

Developing Emotional Intimacy

Romance and infatuation may initially require little effort, but experiencing deep, long-lasting, intimate love requires a passionate pursuit.

A young couple sit close together in the sun, gazing into each other's eyes.

What Is Intimacy?

What is intimacy? What is the definition of intimacy? Sometimes people will do just about anything to get close to someone they find interesting, intriguing, or just plain irresistible. Is that being intimate? “Our souls crave intimacy.” — Erwin Raphael McManus The Pull of Intimacy Sometimes singles will do just about anything to get close …

A silhouette of a face profile with dozens of crumpled pieces of colored paper above it, signifying a person's difficulty in identifying their emotions with soul words.

Learn to Identify Your Emotions in Marriage

Using “soul words” helps develop a greater awareness of your inner experiences. And once you begin the awareness process, you will be amazed at how thoughts, feelings and reactions become clearer to you.

A young woman whispers into her fiancé’s ear while he looks surprised, representing the excitement and curiosity of asking important questions to ask your fiancé.

How Well Do You Know Your Fiancé? Ask these 100 Questions to Find Out

Marriage is a life-long relationship in which vows are made to your mate and to God, and therefore, never to be taken lightly. Be sure you really, truly know your fiancé before making that life-long commitment.

Photo-woman-laughs-with-her-spouse

A Laugh Between Us

When you first got married, you laughed all the time with your spouse. You loved to play with your beloved, and you took delight in him or her. But it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Has the fun evaporated from your marriage due to the heat of stress or responsibility? Laughter can help with that. …

Happy-couple-having-fun-dancing-together-in-modern-kitchen

Strengthen Your Emotional Connection in Marriage by Building Your Friendship

Friendship in marriage is vital, but the busyness of life can squelch it. Don’t let emotional connection in marriage fade away — revive it using these tips.

blind spot mirror

How to Find Your Personal Blind Spots

Asking your spouse to help you find your personal blind spots can help you grow closer together. Discovering weaknesses and improving them can change your relationship for the better.

a couple in counseling for marriage crises

Dealing With Emotional Crises in Marriage

Often couples respond to conflict poorly. Emotions flood them and they feel out of control. Here’s how to stop that destructive cycle.

Dear Focus on the Family Reader, 

The Southern Poverty Law Center couldn’t be more wrong. They recently named Focus on the Family to its radical and inflammatory “hate group” list. Ridiculous!

The ministry you support is pro-person, not pro-sin. We follow the infallible biblical truth that God created two (and only two) genders, and that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman. These are divinely inspired beliefs held by faithful Christians for thousands of years, not hate speech.

Will you give today to stand up for truth and provide resources that invest in God’s plan for marriage and families?

We won’t back down from God’s calling and will continue to fight for families. Together, we will endure and combat hate with Christ’s overcoming love.

Jim Daly posing for a headshot photo

Jim Daly
President of Focus on the Family