Blog - First Things First

5 Things You Should Have In Common With Your Spouse

Marriage can thrive even when you are different.

How much do I need to have in common with my spouse for our marriage to be healthy and happy? Do we need to like all the same things for this to work? These are valid questions faced by many engaged or newly-married couples. We all want to be compatible with our partner, we want…

5 Things You Don’t Need to Have in Common With Your Spouse

You can let your differences complement each other.

When I first started dating my husband 32 years ago (but who’s counting?), the first thing I noticed about him besides his legs was how different we were from each other. I was concerned we didn’t have many things in common. Would this be a stumbling block to our future marriage? Now, I see the…

4 Things Every Couple Should Know About Communication In Marriage

You can enjoy deeper intimacy through conversation.

“Why can’t we just talk about it?” Couples should know: Communication is essential in any relationship, but communication is at the core of marriage. Poor, unclear, or sporadic communication in marriage is its own problem, but unhealthy communication also makes it difficult to work on other marital issues like disagreements related to finances, sex, and…