Search

Relationships & Marriage Q&As

woman with head in hands sad

Wife Has Sexual Misunderstanding With Husband

How can I make my husband understand that I don’t want to have intercourse as often as he does?

Granddaughter and grandmother looking down at something

Adult Fears That Negative Relationship With Parents Will Impact Children

How can I overcome the bitterness I have about the way my parents treated me growing up? I don’t want these memories to affect my relationship with my own kids. After all these years, I continue to struggle with negative feelings about my mother and father. When I think of them, I remember only their …

doctor in scrubs with stethoscope checking small boy

Christian Calling vs. Family Commitments

As a Christian, how do I sort out the difference between my obligation to family on the one hand and to the work of the gospel on the other? And what’s my responsibility to my extended family as compared with my obligation to my immediate, nuclear family? Is there any distinction between the two? My …

nursery with furniture no baby

Couple at Odds About Having Kids

How can my spouse and I resolve our disagreement about starting a family? I’m anxious to be a mother, but he says he isn’t ready to have children yet. My biological clock is ticking away, and the tension between us is growing. What should I do?

Hands of married man looking at his cell phone

Emotional Affairs and Grounds for Divorce

Are repeated emotional affairs biblical grounds for divorce? On several occasions my husband has become emotionally involved with other women in ways that have been seriously destructive to our marriage. The most recent incident involved a lady with whom he’d been emotionally intimate in the past. I’m tired of his betrayals, and though we’ve been …

couple wearing rings with hands on the Bible

Focus on the Family’s Position on Marriage and Divorce

What is Focus on the Family’s position on divorce and remarriage?

Husband and wife are having an argument

Husband Refuses to Work

What can I do about a husband who won’t get a job?

older couple backpacking together

Keeping Sexual Passion Alive in Marriage

How does a man stay sexually interested in his wife after years and years of marriage? Jesus said that anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28), but this strikes me as being terribly unrealistic. In my experience, sexual attraction has always been closely …

sad man head bowed hand in prayer pose

Minimizing the Impact of Depression on Your Family

How can I prevent my struggles with depression and anxiety from having a negative impact on my wife and children? It’s bad enough having to cope with these debilitating feelings, but the thought that I’m making life difficult for my family is almost too much to bear. What should I do?

fancy wedding venue with chandelier

Parents and Financial Expectations for Adult Daughter’s Wedding

Is it our responsibility to cover the expenses for our adult daughter’s wedding when she and her husband-to-be have good, professional jobs and earn more than we do? They expect us to do so even though we have limited financial resources after putting our children through college. Do you think this is right? We feel …

bodies of man and woman walking in field holding hands

Preparing for the Empty Nest

What can we do to get ready for the departure of our youngest child? He’ll be going off to college after the end of this year, and my spouse and I will be left “on our own” as empty nesters. I’ve heard that many couples in our position face serious adjustments and are at risk …

couple holding hands behind backs

Revealing an Affair to Spouse of the Other Party Who’s Still “In the Dark”

What’s the best way to handle the revelation of an affair when one guilty spouse has come clean or been exposed, but the husband or wife of the other unfaithful party is still in the dark?

a jumble of tile letters are scattered around, but OCD is clearly spelled out in the middle

Sorting Out Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

What’s the difference between obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder?

teen guy looking unhappy glasses

Stepdad-Stepson Conflict

How do I mediate problems between my son and his stepfather? I remarried about four years ago and everything seemed to be going well until recently. The trouble seems to have begun about the time my son reached puberty and became interested in girls. Since then, the conflict has developed into open hostility. There have …

couple talking to counselor

Unsure About Whether to Confess an Affair to Spouse

Should I tell my husband that I’ve been unfaithful to him? I recently ended a relationship with another man, but I have serious doubts about the wisdom of revealing this to my spouse. As things stand, he has no idea that anything of this kind has been going on. I’ve confessed my sin before God, …

couple looking pensive

Wife Never Really Loved Husband

Is it possible for me to fall in love with a spouse for whom I never had any romantic feelings in the first place?

shadows against sunset of man and woman

Affair With a Member of the Extended Family

Should I tell my husband about the one-time sexual encounter I had with his brother? It happened over a year ago in a moment of weakness. Both of us immediately acknowledged that this was wrong and nothing further has happened since. Our families see each other regularly and are very close. Neither of us has …

man and woman looking at each other standing close

Christian Romantically Involved With a Non-Christian

Is it okay to be romantically involved with a guy who doesn’t share my Christian faith? He asked me out on a date six months ago, and though at the time I didn’t think it was a good idea, I went ahead and accepted. Now he’s captured my heart and I don’t know what to …

Hands holding Images of car, house, family on green background

Couple Disagrees About Money Management

How can I convince my husband that budgeting is important? I’m a firm believer in this method of money management, but my husband doesn’t think it will work in our situation. How do we resolve this disagreement?

two men two women looking out over ocean at sunset

Emotional Affairs and Ongoing Friendships

Should my husband and I discontinue our friendship with another couple simply because the man and I became involved in an emotional affair? It’s over now, and my spouse and the man’s wife have taken a firm but conciliatory attitude towards the whole thing. For obvious reasons, we’ve also suspended our normal get-togethers for the …