Three Simple Keys to Raising the Happiest Kids on the Planet!

And our final installment…

Key #3. Begin with the End in Mind!

In his highly successful book 7 Habits of Highly Successful People Dr. Stephen R. Covey says we must “Begin with the End in Mind”. This is a highly effective key in raising happy kids. We must stop long enough in our fast paced lives to think about the end and work our way back to today.

Think about your “golden years” in terms of your relationships. When your children and grand children and great grandchildren gather at your home for a holiday celebration, what do you want that celebration to look and feel like? If we want a home full of joy and happy relationships we must model that happiness today!

One of our favorite quotes is: “We must become the change we want to see in the world.” – Mohandas Gandhi

Bottom line? If we want to raise the happiest kids on the planet we must first choose to be happy ourselves!

Blessings~

Jay & Laura

Commemorating Accomplishments

Jay and Laura talk about the importance of commemorating accomplishments and achievements in your marriage, and family as well!

Praise Your Wife!

I (Jay) tell men all over the country that they should praise their wife publicly. One way to hold your wife in high esteem is to publicly acknowledge her gifts and abilities. Not only is it the RIGHT thing to do but it screams to the world and more importantly HER that you love her.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of being Laura’s “roadie” as she spoke at a women’s conference at Caraway Conference Center in Sophia, NC. I ran (albeit not well) her Keynote presentation (read slides) from the sound booth, made sure she had water on stage and generally took care of her “every” need… (read rubbed her feet after she wore high heels)…

Anyway, she gave her new presentation “It’s Gotta Be the Shoes” throughout the weekend, and frankly knocked the ball out of the park! Anyone who’s seen one of our date nights and/or one of our conferences is aware of Laura’s love of shoes (doesn’t EVERY woman love shoes?) Well, Laura has taken her love of shoes and created an entire weekend retreat (As well as upcoming book/Bible study) on the different “shoes” that a woman wears in her life. From “Dancing shoes” to “Comfortable Shoes” and many in between.

I was humbled to watch my wife as she wove a wonderful weekend together where the women laughed, cried, and hugged! I was so glad I was firmly planted in the sound booth!

My wife is a fabulous communicator! I have to admit, as I watched her “doing her thang!” that there were tears in my eyes too as I praised the Lord for the gift he’s given me in Laura.

So praise your wife publicly…in fact why not do it right here on this blog! Or…ladies why not share a time when your hubby praised you publicly and tell us how it made you feel.

Blessings~
Jay

Surprising “survey” finds marriage is a priority amongst college students

Our son Torrey is a Junior at Central Michigan University and he recently relayed a story that took place in one of his classes. The Professor ran through an exercise designed to help everyone “get to know you better” Basically she listed around 20 items like: Find a cure for cancer, be a millionaire by age 30, be famous…etc. Each student could pick 3 items off the list then they had to “defend” why they picked those three.

One item on the list was “have a happy marriage”. Our son went on to explain that HE certainly picked that as one of his top three, but he didn’t believe many of the other students in his class would. Much to his surprise when nearly 90% of the class picked “have a happy marriage” as one of their top three from the list.

Torrey went on to say that there were two basic reasons given for picking “have a happy marriage”, they were:
1) My parents have a good marriage and I want one too.
2) My parents marriage is awful and I don’t want that.

The desire for a happy marriage is present, strong and unquenchable. The work it takes to make a happy marriage is what most people standing at the alter do not understand.

What were some of the reasons YOU chose to marry?

Send us your thoughts~

J&L

Men: ever thought of her orgasm as YOUR duty?

“. . . Judaism took the idea of sexual obligation so seriously as to protect a woman’s sexual pleasure, as opposed to simply her right to take part regularly in the sexual act itself.  The sexual act failed to fulfill a man’s duty if the woman did not feel pleasure, that is, achieve an orgasm.”

The Jewish culture has an interesting take on sex in marriage! A man’s duty to his wife is to fulfill her sexually.  I think that many women do not like having sex because they are not being fulfilled sexually so the thought process becomes, “what’s the point”?

Gentleman, your duty is to make sure that your wife is enjoying your sex life and when she is fulfilled, I can guarantee you she will want more! Ask your wife what you can do to make sure this happens. Learn to be a great lover by asking her what she needs.

To read the full post:
http://tinyurl.com/3vbndg9