Marriage during a pandemic is no joke! We know this is likely a unique season for relationships. Many have not experienced this much “together time” in recent years or ever! Perhaps financial stress is high or worries about the health and safety of a spouse or others we love is putting you on extra edge. No matter the “different” in our circumstances, it helps to recognize that every relationship goes through various seasons.

We brought relationship expert and therapist Debra Fileta to the sisterhood to talk about her newest book Love In Every Season. She describes the flow of relationships through various cycles and how working through each one well prepares you for the next. From the newness of spring, to the hot passion of summer, the colorful conflicts of fall, or the quiet of winter you can determine which season you are in these days and how it can build toward overall health.

Sister, we know this may be a difficult time at home simply because of the unexpected stress that life is throwing at you and your spouse. No matter your season you can make intentional choices to love each other well. You have agency in how you respond to each other. We pray this is an encouragement.

Connect with Debra on her website, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Listen to this episode on iTunes or here:

http://theopendoorsisterhood.libsyn.com/ep230-the-seasons-of-marriage-with-debra-fileta

Things you heard on this episode:

Debra’s new book: The Four Seasons of Love

1 Corinthians 13:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Debra’s blog

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