The Marriage To The Max Podcast

EPISODE 36 – TRIED AND TRUE TOOLS

What relational tools work best to get a marriage back on track? Since every married couple is different, there are too many effective tools to mention. However, this week, Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement mention a few that they have used time and time again to effectively encourage spouses in their marriages. With prayer and grace, these tools (and others) might be beneficial to your marriage.

Resources mentioned on this podcast include: Gary Chapman www.garychapman.org; The Smalley Institute www.smalley.cc; Kelly Simpson/Active Relationships Center www.activerelationships.com; David Ferguson (www.greatcommandment.net); Karl Elkins/Christway Counseling www.christwaycounseling.com; John Gottman/The Gottman Institute (www.gottman.com).

If you have any further questions or have an effective tool that has worked for you in that past that you would like to share with others, please contact us at thehursts@homeencouragement.org. As always, thanks for listening!

EPISODE 35 – PRIVATE EYES

This week, Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement discuss the ideas of personal privacy as it involves couples. Should a wife have the access codes and passwords into her husband’s accounts and social media—and vice versa? Will this enhance intimacy and trust? How much is too much? Should individual spouses have their own sense of privacy? The idea for this podcast episode actually was triggered by a conversation with our recording engineer, Zach Alkire. As a result, Zach was spontaneously asked to join the episode midway through our discussion. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Thanks Zach!

EPISODE 34 – RECOVERING FROM INFIDELITY (INTERVIEW WITH MICKEY AND STEPHANIE PETERS)

This week, Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement interview Mickey and Stephanie Peters of Upside Ministries in Houston. The Peters have a remarkable story of infidelity recovery as well as an outreach to couples that have suffered or are suffering from the devastating trauma of betrayal, infidelity and sexual addiction. This is a candid conversation about the realities of dealing with such an extraordinary marital roadblock. There are few tougher blows that a married couple can experience. Yet, hope is always available for recovery for willing spouses. This discussion briefly explores the possibilities of healing from these wounds.

A couple of good resources mentioned during this episode including Mickey and Stephanie Peters of Upside Ministries (www.upsideministries.com) as well as Affair Recovery Center (www.affairrecovery.com) Both would be good starting places for couples that have suffered from the effects of infidelity. If you have further questions or comments, you may contact thehursts@homeencouragement.org. As always, thank you very much for listening!

EPISODE 33 – AGAIN WITH THE MARRIAGE QUOTES?

This week on “Marriage to the Max”, Brett & Kellie Hurst revisit some famous and not-so-famous quotes about marriage… mainly not-so-famous. We hope you enjoy the conversation. This particular series has become a favorite installment of the hosts (not so sure if that’s the case for our listeners!). At any rate, send us your favorite celebrity quotes about marriage at thehursts@homeencouragement.org. We’d love to potentially use them in a future podcast. And thanks so much for listening each week.

Special thanks to Grant Peterson of South Hill Communications and Zach Alkire. Opening and closing theme by Loopsound.

EPISODE 32 – RELATIONAL TIME MANAGEMENT

Although this sounds like a seminar, in this episode of “Marriage to the Max” Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement are merely having an informal conversation discussing how to prioritize relationships, particularly the relationship with one’s spouse. How does the math work out in your relationship? It might be worth having your own discussion about your personal schedules.

Thanks to our musical engineer Zach Alkire, as well as to Grant Peterson of South Hill Communicationsfor their ongoing efforts to post our podcast each week. Zach’s original music can be found at www.soundcloud.com/alkiremedia. Opening and closing theme music by Loopsound.

EPISODE 31 – THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUALS IN MARRIAGE

Sometimes, in marriage, the most seemingly insignificant traditions can be the most important ones. As a couple, do you have little rituals that you share together that help make your marriage special and personal? Do you have a favorite song? A favorite movie that you don’t mind watching over and over? A favorite place to get coffee? A special restaurant that is “your place”? If not, we encourage you to begin conversations about adopting special rituals of connection in order to further enhance the bonds of your marriage. Even the smallest traditions make more of an impact toward creating more intimacy between a husband and wife than you might think.

By the way, if you have some special “little tradition” that you enjoy as a couple that you would be willing to share with others, we’d love to hear about it. You may contact us at thehursts@homeencouragement.org. As always, thanks so much for listening!

EPISODE 30 – STARTING A MARRIED LIFE GROUP (INTERVIEW WITH DAVID & SUE HARKINS)

Marriage was never designed to be a relationship that exists in isolation. In our opinion, especially in today’s world, the challenges of staying on course in a God-centered, fulfilling marriage are too much to handle without the support of others. This week, Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement interview their very good friends David and Sue Harkins about their Married Life Group. The Hursts and the Harkins are two of seven couples that have met monthly together for the last seven years simply to enjoy honest conversation about their marriages. Whatever you wish to call a small group like this, a group of married couples meeting together regularly can strengthen a marriage bonds beyond what might be imagined. Every couple needs the prayerful support of other couples, encouraging them to stay strong in their marriage commitment. We hope this episode inspires others to consider starting something similar within their own circles of influence.

Special thanks to Grant Peterson of South Hill Communications and to our engineer Zach Alkire for tireless efforts to get Marriage to the Max produced and posted each week. For more on Zach’s music, check out www.soundcloud.com/alkiremedia. Opening and closing theme by Loopsound.

EPISODE 29 – WHY IS MY SPOUSE ALWAYS THE PROBLEM?

Wouldn’t life be so much easier if your spouse would just “get with the program”?  If only our spouses were as enlightened, kind, compassionate, trustworthy, athletic, dependable, productive and brilliant as we are!  Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement discuss the question above that frequently seems to come up in conversation with married couples.  However, when frustrated about periodic seasons of difficulty in marriage, perhaps this is not always the best question to be asking.  In fact, it’s actually possible that, in many cases, we would witness more overall change in our marriages by instead surrendering more of ourselves to God’s sovereign care for us.

Thank you so much for listening!

EPISODE 28 – WHAT DO TODAY’S DATING MEN AND WOMEN SEEM TO WANT?

In this week’s episode, Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement discuss a recent survey that apparently gauges what today’s dating men look for first in women…and…what dating women seem to look for first in men. What does this all mean? We have no idea. But we thought it might be an interesting window into today’s dating scene. We’d love to hear from you about what first attracted you to your spouse or dating partner! You can email us at thehursts@homeencouragement.org.

Thanks again to Grant Peterson, the whiz at South Hill Communications for posting these podcast episodes each week. Also, we appreciate the funky interlude music each week from our talented engineer, Zach Alkire. Opening and closing themes by Loopsound.

EPISODE 27 – DEEP THOUGHTS ABOUT “THE BACHELOR”

Can a couple really find “true love” on the reality show “The Bachelor”? Only time will tell… as will the ratings. This week, just for fun, Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement bring their deepest thoughts (not really) about the weekly antics of one of television’s longest running “reality” shows. We hope that you take this particular podcast episode about as seriously as we did.

Thanks so much for your continued listening to this marriage podcast. If you would like to contact us, you can email us at thehursts@homeencouragement.org. We would love to hear from you.
Thanks again to Grant and Zach for all their help!