The Essence of Marriage
There have been no shortage of challenges in the last year. The huge scale of the Covid pandemic and its impact is naturally causing a lot of anxiety, uncertainty, and fear across the globe. Lockdowns, face masks, tiers and restrictions, furlough schemes, home-working and business closures have headlined the news. Getting married in the chaos […]
New resource on marriage!
Launched to celebrate National Marriage Week, Claire and Steve Musters take an honest look at how we can strengthen and transform our marriages in their new book Grace-Filled Marriage. They begin by sharing their own story of rebuilding a marriage after loneliness, betrayal and separation. Also included are stories from other couples who have faced specific […]
In Sickness and in Health
I’m sometimes asked questions about our wedding day – how did I feel walking down the aisle? Did I have any pre-ceremony nerves? Did my head feel like it was going to explode or was I as cool as a cucumber? The truth is that I was incredibly calm on the morning of our wedding. […]
“How can we have a ‘Naked Wedding’?”
During Marriage Week 2021, the 10 – 16 May, celebrate your relationship by making a definite decision about the future and proposing to your partner! Let us know if you do and to help you on your way, we’ve come up with some thoughts on how to have a simple, stripped back ‘Naked Wedding’. I’m […]
Forgiveness – Why it’s Both Good and Challenging
Mark Twain wrote that forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. While this is an achingly beautiful description, the reality is that for many, reaching any form of forgiveness can seem as impossible to reach as the stars. Hurt can run very deep when it is perceived […]
Marriage Week 2020 Update: Online Launch of UK National Marriage Week – The Forever Conversation
For months, I’ve been preparing for the annual, national celebration that is Marriage Week. At the early stages of planning for 2020, I was considering what the theme should be this year, having development meetings with the many excellent organisations who partner with the campaign, smaller team meetings, and countless conversations with my husband too! […]
Commit or Quit – The Two Year Rule and Other Rules for Romance, by Harry Benson, published 11 May
Attitudes to sex, relationships, and marriage have changed enormously over the last fifty years. We have undergone a sexual revolution. Society is less stuffy, less rigid, and less patriarchal. There is more individual choice, freedom, and sex. It has been an unmitigated improvement to human development, hasn’t it? Well, there’s a problem. Birth control changed […]
3 Dates that Shaped a Future
Friday the 9th of August 2019 feels like a lifetime ago. It was a time before the terms ‘quarantine’, ‘social-distancing’ and ‘furlough’ were on the tips of even the most pessimistic tongues (back then I definitely wouldn’t have even known what ‘furloughing’ meant). Although it feels like an era has passed since then, in reality […]
Renovating our home and renovating our marriage
For the past few months my wife and I have been living in a different space as our family home has been undergoing significant restoration. Just as we sifted through the contents of our home prior to our departure into a different place, touching on memories both good and bad, we are now doing the […]
The best help we can give each other right now
The experience of being in ‘lockdown’ is tough on relationships. Fault lines that may have always been there may now widen under the stress. Distractions that we used to keep difficult feelings at bay have now gone. I wonder if you, like me have found the wisdom of grief and trauma experts is incredibly insightful […]