Editor’s Note: It is always our hope that a couple is able to reconcile. If your own marriage is in trouble our mentors are available to help.  It is difficult to deal with everyday life when you’re going through a divorce. You feel lousy both physically and emotionally. But in spite of that, you need to take care of your financial situation...

Emotional Abandonment: Bridging the Gap

Do you sometimes feel emotionally disconnected even though your spouse is standing right next to you? FamilyLife Directors Neil and Sharol Josephson have been married for over thirty years and have spoken with thousands of couples. In this video series, they discuss gender and personality differences for emotional abandonment, and how the way your...

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Striving for Satisfaction

Do you ever find yourself striving to be the best?  Do you ever stop and ask, “Why am I trying so hard?”  This is Nadine’s story.  Nadine craved recognition, but she was never satisfied – no matter how high her grades or how incredible her jump shots.  What do you do when everything you wanted still isn't enough? Take the next step: Choosing...

There’s another way your abuse could be impacting you and that’s in your enjoyment and desire for sex with your spouse. In addition to the ways sexual abuse damages our bodies, spirits and emotions, sexual abuse also damages our view of sex. When we’ve been used for others’ sexual pleasure the experience becomes associated with a negative...

Sometimes we can feel a certain way for so long that it starts to feel normal, comfortable even. It becomes so familiar that we stuff down that nagging thought that we should do something about our struggles. The process of healing can seem scarier than what we’re experiencing now. I met a woman at a retreat who began to share with me that her...

Perhaps you’ve been struggling for years with feelings that you can’t understand or explain. Here are some of the ways sexual abuse affects a child, which can follow into adulthood. Maybe you’ll see some of yourself in the list below: Self-blame: When children experience trauma, their inherent egocentrism leads them to believe that they...

Sexual abuse has a broader definition than we may assume. There are four types of sexual abuse: verbal, visual, physical and psychological. Verbal sexual abuse includes sexual threats, sexual comments about your body, lewd or suggestive comments and inappropriate sexual conversations with children. Visual sexual abuse includes exposure to pornographic,...