Heartfelt Marriage

Even the best marriages have problems, and the most loving couples sometimes suffer discord. Why are some marriage relationship dilemmas so unsolvable? Why do some marriages get sick stay sick and never heal? In this Podcast, Dr. Ross discusses some of the reasons and offers hope for every marriage! He believes that when both of you decide to do what is necessary to stop the hurting behavior that makes your marriage sick and start the healing behavior that makes your marriage healthy you both are blessed with a deep sense of joy, peace, and love. The podcast is 9 minutes long.

Healthy marriage: seeks wisdom Hurting marriage: favors folly   One sign of an unhappy marriage is a long list of bad choices. Wisdom knows the difference between right and wrong; folly doesn't care. Wisdom knows when a choice is good or bad, folly figures you can clean up the mess later. Wisdom knows the dramatic difference between truth and delusion; folly rather enjoys the ignorance. You don't want to be famous for your folly. You want to make good choices, create a healthy happy household, understand the deep wants and needs of those you love the most. You want insight into each soul, astuteness in each decision, and unconditional love to be given and received within your marriage. In this podcast, Dr. Ross helps you create a marriage marked by wisdom - by good choices and fewer missteps. The podcast is less than 9 minutes.

Husbands make mistakes - so do wives; this means both must become skilled forgivers. The question isn't whether or not you or your mate will screw up something important; the question is what happens after the mess is made? Will you forgive or will you live in resentment? In this Podcast, Dr. Ross says, "The place to start is in your heart. Not in your mate's heart, in your heart. You can do very little to make your mate do anything, but you can control yourself. Begin by forgiving your mate for the wrong committed." Dr. Ross adds three warnings about forgiveness followed by some practical help when YOU are the one who made the mistake, and what to do about it. The podcast is 9 minutes long.

"I just want a little peace and quiet!" screamed a young mother. The problem is, children take time to grow up. Not only that, relationships take time to mature, troubles take time to resolve, and opportunities take time to develop.   Life never moves at the pace we prefer. Sometimes it moves so slowly we think time has stopped. Then next week or next month or next year, it moves so fast we spin out of control. "What is going on?" we cry. "Why can't things happen as I want them to?" We need patience. Don't you just hate that word? Who wants to be told to "hold your horses," or "wait your turn," or "don't be in such a hurry!" However, you've probably noticed, in marriage, patience is required. That's what Dr. Ross talks about in this podcast. Marriage, says Dr. Ross, is the one relationship that takes more time to mature than all others. When it does mature, sweet it is; how together you feel; how at home you want to be. Have patience: He will become the husband you've always wanted. She will become the wife w

What Do You Expect? Healthy marriage: expects success Hurting marriage: assumes failure Podcast 052 By Ron Ross The Law of Expectations states that our imaginations, thoughts, and emotions, whether positive or negative, have a powerful influence on our mind-body connection and impact the people around us and the events of our daily lives. Stated simply: What you expect to happen usually happens. Expect to succeed, and you succeed; expect to fail, and you fail. The Law doesn't care whether you expect good or bad, it works either way to increase the odds that you will get what you expect. In this podcast, Dr. Ross applies the Law of Expectations to marriage. He asks, "How long do you expect to be married to your spouse? If you both answer, a lifetime, you will likely one day celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary." On the other hand, he points out if you think, "my parents divorced, my mate's parents divorced, I wouldn't be surprised if we too drifted apart," you will likely end up in divorce court because the

"Why is it always my fault when something goes wrong?" Blaming in marriage is a dangerous and love-snuffing game. It is a difficult behavior to deal with because every spat quickly turns into a debate about who did what and why and whose fault it was. When blame is the name of the game, there is seldom a time, place or desire to face the reality of the situation and seek a long-lasting solution. Blame your mate, and you will never solve a problem or strengthen your marriage. You will, however, increase your chances of spending an inordinate amount of money on a divorce attorney who will exploit your "irreconcilable differences." You don't want that to happen. Whenever you make a mistake you have two choices: admit or blame. For some reason, it's easy to blame others and darn hard to declare, "I screwed up! It's my fault, I apologize." In this Podcast, Dr. Ross provides you with six components of a sincere apology - listen to them, write them down, and employ them so your marriage will be kind, resilient, and

Married couples can easily suffer from the debilitating "do-it-yourself" disease. Some couples are convinced their relationship will someway, someday, get better even if no one takes any initiative to change. In this podcast, Dr. Ross gives five reasons a married couple might hesitate to seek help. Then he gives five reasons that demonstrate the same couple is ready to ask for help. It's possible Dr. Ross mentioned you (not by name) in this podcast, so take 9 minutes and listen. Maybe, just maybe, you need to ask for some help.

If I asked you to describe the changes you have endured (or celebrated) over the years of your marriage, you would have a variety of stories to tell – some good – some bad – most, inevitable. Everyone does. In this podcast, Dr. Ross reminds you that when change happens, you have two choices: to look backward or to look forward. When you look back, you focus on what went wrong. When you look forward envision what you can do right. The past contains pain and regret. The future contains options and hope. It's OK to look back, but don't look long. Instead, look forward; look longingly forward. What do you want your marriage to be? What do you want your children to become? Where do you want to go in life? What has God placed in your heart as your mission to make this world a little better? The podcast is 10 min. long.

The easiest thing to do on earth is to whine, complain, and make excuses. Most complaints start with, “Why do you always …” or “Why can’t you ever …” or “You drive me crazy every time you …” And it can quickly get real nasty. What good does it do to moan and make excuses? Not much. Misery is the only consequence of whining and complaining. In this podcast, Dr. Ross says, “The day you become a problem solver is the day you become an adult. Three-year-olds whine and make excuses. Adults see problems and solve them.”  A healthy marriage seeks solutions to problems while a hurting marriage whines and makes excuses. Which do you have? Which do you want? The podcast is 9 minutes long.

An over-expressed ego within marriage is toxic and can be fatal to your relationship. If one of you thinks the whole world revolves around you, if you think you know everything and understand everything and the other mate is unworthy or uninformed, the relationship is a long way from WE. The poison of ego starts its lethal attack on the marriage. In this 10-minute podcast, Dr. Ross gives you three “acts of love” that will help deal with your own ego and then go from “ME” to “WE” in your marriage. Dr. Ross says, “It’s this simple, a couple that focuses on becoming one is happier, wealthier and healthier. I can tell you from personal experience; it’s worth the effort to move from ME to WE.”

You’ve probably noticed, the easiest person available to us for biting and insensible remarks is our mate. More than anyone else on earth, we know how to yank their chain or hurt their soul with a cutting or nasty remark. To be crude or insensitive, to be disrespectful to the person we love the most is a big mistake. That’s the bad news. Now the good news: There is no one else on earth as easy for us to treat kindly, respectfully and courteously than the one we love the most – our mate! In this podcast Dr. Ross conveys three easy ways to be courteous to your mate; he even makes a profound confession about his own lack of courtesy in his marriage.   When you are polite and courteous to your mate you show a maturity and depth of love that enhances your relationship and strengthens the bonds between you. The podcast is only 9 minutes long.

When God created marriage, he created it to be beautiful. He perfectly designed Adam & Eve and when he introduced them to each other, they noticed immediately they were very much the same, but with some desirable differences. Those male/female distinctions made “becoming one” relaxed, natural, and a most pleasurable act. This charming couple lived in a delightful garden that provided them with meaningful work, plenty of food, and a perfect climate. Life was good – but ruined by the personal intervention by the enemy of God, Satan. Life outside the Garden was tough, but Adam and Eve stayed married for a VERY long time, so they must have learned to get along! Your life is tough too – but you want to stay together and be a happily married couple, right? You want a lifetime marriage, right? In this podcast, Dr. Ross shares three great truths about marriage he learned from Adam and Eve. You’ll love this fast-moving and interesting presentation that lasts less than 10 minutes.  

Nothing shuts down a person quicker than ill-health. The body aches, the head throbs, the stomach swirls, the throat burns, the knees buckle, and life gets smaller and smaller as the pain gets greater and greater. When it comes to physical ill-health, we respond with the most efficient and most effective cure possible. But when it comes to the pain and injury that often arise within marriage relationships, what do we do? We suffer in silence or scream and rant. We bury it deep or bring it up often. We sleep in the same bed, but back to back. We take separate vacations, ignore each other’s cry, avoid eye contact, deceive, deride, and even destroy the other’s ego. It’s all pain, all sorrow, all sickness of soul and all too often ignored. Doesn’t have to be that way, you know. For sure, Dr. Ross does not believe it should be that way. He believes you want and you can have a healthy marriage. This 10-minute podcast his the first of a series of messages designed to help you fight off relational diseases and create

Adam and Eve were married almost 1000 years. Sounds difficult, doesn’t it? It gets worse. While there is no real record, some theologians think they had 33 sons and 23 daughters. That’s 56 kids. Most Americans have trouble reaching past the so-called “seven-year itch” without getting a divorce. Marriage isn’t for wimps, that’s for sure. Dr. Ross knows and he shares stories from his own lifetime marriage (52-years and 4-months). He wants you to create an atmosphere that is conducive to a death-till-us-part kind of marriage.  You will smile at Dr. Ross’s story that a Three Musketeer candy bar saved their marriage!

There are several high points in a church wedding. The “I do” promise, the “announcement” that they are husband and wife, and of course, the “kiss.” Each part is designed to increase the bonding between the bride and groom. The promises they make create a covenant, an agreement, a mutually agreed to compact to love, respect and live with each other “until we are parted by death!” In this Podcast, Dr. Ross describes the impacts such a covenant has on the couple and the guests in the audience. His words will take you down memory lane and put you back at that moment when you and your mate said, “I do.” Take the trip! The podcast is only 9 minutes long.

Before anything romantic happens between a gentleman and a lady, there must be a spark – an unexplainable connection – an unrehearsed fascination that lures them together. In this Podcast, Dr. Ross discusses how this process works. In his inimitable way, he tells stories from his own life that will make you smile and nod your head “yes.” Why? Because you’ll put yourself into the stories and see how your love relationship went from being strangers to being lovers. Dr. Ross admits this: “Much of what I share with you in these podcasts come NOT from my overwhelming success as being the best husband a woman ever had, but from my ignorance or selfishness or stubbornness to take the time and energy to understand my wife or myself or my children or for that matter, life itself.” By listening to Dr. Ross, you can save yourself from making many of the mistakes he made over the five-plus decades he was married to the lady he always refers to as “that cute little Colorado girl named Amy Kay.”

Did you spend a lot of money celebrating Valentine’s Day? Was it worth it? Some people think the whole Valentine’s Day thing is contrived and a big waste of time and money. Not Dr. Ross. In this podcast, he recalls his first Valentine’s Day with the lady who would become the love of his life. He is convinced MEN need Valentine’s Day! In this podcast, he makes several fun suggestions how you can extend the romantic relationship strengthening aspects of Valentine’s Day. He says, “Come on, lovers, there’s no need to wait another year before you do something special for that something special person you love so very much.” The podcast is only nine minutes long.

This beautifully worded and emotionally powerful podcast is the conclusion to two previous podcasts under the fascinating theme, what makes matrimony holy. Dr. Ross tells two stories about two uncles. One uncle honored his marriage vows despite a difficult situation; the other did not. You will be moved, perhaps to tears, as he tells their stories and then applies them to your marriage. This is a MUST LISTEN to podcast – it lasts only 12 minutes – worth every second!

There are four wedding gifts that married couples receive when they invite God into their marriage. In this podcast, Dr. Ross reveals two of those gifts – and you will want and need them both at some time in your marriage. The podcast is only eight minutes long.

You will smile as you hear Dr. Ross recall the story of his wedding day, August 4, 1963. He has a bright memory of the traditional church wedding ceremony when he and his cute little Colorado girl named Amy Kay were “joined in holy matrimony!” Their teenage marriage lasted for 52-years and 4-months – against all the odds. It is a set up to the important question he answers over the next few podcasts: what makes matrimony holy? You will like his answers! The interesting and inspiring podcast is only 8 minutes long.