Chapter 1: For Better or For Worse

Marriage is what you make of it-for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse. But you probably don't feel like your marriage is all it could be. So, how do you make the most of your marriage? You begin by figuring out where you are and how you got there. You have to take a close look at the atmosphere you've created. You have to identify what you brought into the marriage, intentionally or unintentionally. The purpose of Thrive is to help you do just that. You'll shed light on your marriage's unidentified weaknesses and celebrate its strengths.

Chapter 2: Work on You First

You begin the work of building a thriving marriage by looking in the mirror, taking an honest assessment, and then working on what you discover.

Chapter 3: A Safe Place

What does it mean to feel safe? It’s a question that usually evokes thoughts of personal safety—seatbelts, door locks, maybe even an alarm system. But what about safety on an emotional level? What does it mean to feel safe when asking your husband for help with the kids? What does it mean to feel safe when asking your wife why she seems more on edge than usual?

In order to have a thriving marriage, you must become a safe spouse.

Chapter 4: Desires or Demands?

We all have physical and emotional needs. Many of them are God-given. In Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” All of Adam’s physical needs were met in the garden of Eden, but he needed another human being to meet his emotional needs. Men often have trouble acknowledging they have emotional needs, but God saw that Adam couldn’t live in isolation, so he created Eve. The marriage relationship is a central part of God’s plan to meet our emotional needs.

Chapter 5: Family of Origin

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” “He’s a chip off the old block.” “Like mother, like daughter.” “Like father, like son.” These may be clichés, but sayings become clichés for a reason. There’s a measure of truth behind them. We inherit much from our parents and the environments in which we were raised. In thriving marriages, spouses are willing to look at their past, in order to make better sense of their present.

Chapter 6: Communication and Conflict

Have you ever found yourself waiting for your spouse to finish speaking so you can offer your rebuttal? Do you sometimes hold back because you think your spouse won’t understand? Or maybe you think you communicate clearly, but your spouse never quite gets your meaning.

Why is communication in marriage so difficult?

With God’s help and the use of the communication and conflict resolution tools in this session, you’ll be able to develop your skills and improve your connection with your spouse.

Chapter 7: The Gift of Forgiveness

On your wedding day, you and your spouse were convinced that you loved each other so much you could overlook almost any of your imperfections. It became a different story once you had to live with each other’s imperfections day after day. The good news is that God has given us two powerful tools for coming to grips with our spouses’ imperfections: confession and forgiveness.

Chapter 8: Intimacy

In some ways, we can’t help but be influenced by the culture around us. In America, intimacy is a popular but largely misunderstood topic. Television, movies, books, magazines, and music are full of confusing information, observations, and advice. They are powerful influences that help shape our understanding of intimacy.

With so many factors influencing us, is it any wonder we don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on the subject of intimacy? What does God say about intimacy? Our desire to feel deeply connected to another person is God-given. God wants us to find fulfillment and satisfaction through a relationship with him. But he also designed us to experience fulfillment and satisfaction through the intimacy of marriage. Marital intimacy is a pursuit of oneness-an ongoing quest to discover as much as we can about our spouses and to reveal everything about ourselves.