In the second part of The Healthy Way series we bring you New York Times bestselling author Karen Ehman to talk about getting healthy in marriage. Karen speaks from decades of experience as a married person. Her themes center around pushing ahead in the mundane and “showing up” even when annoyances are heavy. A realistic look at the everyday details of married life, we talk through the larger purpose of marriage and why we need to be paying attention to this relationship in the first place.

In true Open Door Sisterhood fashion, this interview tackles both the inspirational and practical pursuits. We hear how Karen tackled differences in parenting, disagreeing in front of their children, distinguishing between “different” and “wrong”, and letting the small things go. From boredom to attraction Karen’s straight talk helps us all know we are not alone in the mundane of marriage and she encourages us to not give in to mediocre, but to push forward for a marriage that is refining and refreshing to the world.

If you are a woman who is married or would like to be married someday, we encourage you to listen in on this conversation. Loving our spouse well may only be 10% sexy, the rest is showing up for the work, but the reward is 100% worth it. This episode is a great reminder of both the why and how to make our relationship a priority even when, especially when, we see the ordinary days stretch ahead.

You can connect with Karen on her website, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Listen to the episode on iTunes.

Karen’s new book: Keep Showing Up: How to Stay Crazy in Love When Your Love Drives You Crazy

Karen’s books Let. It. Go.: How to Stop Running the Show and Start Walking in Faith and Keep It Shut: What to Say, How to Say It, and When to Say Nothing at All

Focus on the Family

Trader Joe’s

12 Dates in 12 Months by Krista

The Marriage Builder by Larry Crabb

Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas

Thank you to our sponsor for The Healthy Way series: Baker Books.

We all want to be more authentic versions of ourselves, right? And the new year seems like a good time to dig deep and get healthy, realigned, and get rid of the stuff that’s weighing us down. In her brand new book, True You: Letting Go of Your False Self to Uncover the Person God Created, Michelle DeRusha uses the gardening metaphor of pruning to talk about how we can prune away the false parts of ourselves to leave the true parts of ourselves to breath and grow. If you’re hoping to strive for a better you in 2019, check out True You at michellederusha.com/trueyou.

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