The Marriage To The Max Podcast

EPISODE 6 – COMMUNICATION 101

Welcome back to “Marriage to the Max”, the weekly marriage podcast hosted by Brett and Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement. This week, we discuss “Communication 101”. This is a vital topic for most couples. Are you aware that the average amount of quality conversation per day for married couples is 3 minutes? Wow! Really? That staggers the mind, frankly. However, we’re willing to bet that, with just a little bit of effort, most couples can improve dramatically on increasing that amount of conversation.

You should know that communication struggles are extremely common among married couples. This is why this subject of more effective communication will be a topic that “Marriage to the Max” will visit and revisit frequently. Fortunately, effective communication skills can be learned and applied fairly easily that will typically make things smoother for couples. We hope to encourage you with helpful insights to remind spouses how important it is to pray and work consistently for better and clearer communication between one another.

As always, we invite you to share your insights and further questions with us. Our hope is that these podcasts might help you enjoy your marriage experience more and more. Your feedback is always appreciated. Contact us at thehursts@homeencouragement.org and let us know how we’re doing!

Thanks again to Zach Alkire for his engineering prowess and musical deposits. Also, we’re thankful for Grant Peterson of South Hill Communications for his invaluable contributions to OUR communication! We are grateful for both of these guys, as well as their friendship and gifts.

EPISODE 5 – DIVINE ROMANCE

This week, Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement discuss “Divine Romance” on the Marriage to the Max podcast.

Is the idea of romance between a man and a woman a divine idea? Most certainly, it is! And, even more unequivocally, God is the utmost expert on a married couple’s need for romance. As a matter of fact, scripturally speaking, it’s crystal clear that the Lord desires married couples to experience the richness of a romantic lifestyle. There’s a reason why the fullness of healthy sex and enticing romance are beyond human description.

Obviously, the notion of deep, romantic expression between two lovers did not originate in Hollywood. Romance expression has been around since the beginning of time. But divine romance is more than just physical attraction. Don’t get the wrong idea…external sexual attraction to your spouse can be a fantastic thing–good for any marriage! But what if couples also nurtured a deeper internal intimacy within marriage?

What are we saying? We want married couples to not merely passively react to whatever turns them on in a given moment, but also to consistently initiate ongoing romance with one another…day or night. Think outside of the box. Talk and dream together about romance. Find out how to meet each other’s needs. When that occurs, a more mutually satisfying relationship grows. In other words, divine love is more than just getting one’s own needs met. True romance is selfless and limitless…and that’s exactly what can make it totally exciting. We hope that every married couple can carve out time away from ongoing daily stressors to focus more on cultivating deep romance within lifelong marriage. It is so worth it.

As always, we love hearing from you. Please feel free to share your ideas with us by contacting us at thehursts@homeencouragment.org anytime. We value your input, your suggestions, and your questions. And thanks for listening!

Special gratitude to our engineer Zach Alkire who always brings good vibes and creative incidental tracks. Also, props to Grant Peterson of South Hill Communications for his generous use of time in order to make our communication more effective. Opening and closing theme songs by Loopsound.

EPISODE 4 – SILVER ANNIVERSARY LESSONS

Thanks so much for listening to our new marriage podcast, “Marriage to the Max”, hosted by Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement. Your positive emails are keeping us going and we’re glad that the content has seemed helpful to several couples. We also hope that you have been enjoying listening to us bumble through these conversations. At least we’re having fun doing this….not sure about anyone else!

This year marks the 25th wedding anniversary of the Hursts. In some ways, it seems like we’ve been married forever….in other ways, it seems like we’ve only just begun (with apologies to The Carpenters). Looking forward, we can’t wait to be married for twice this long! There is still so very much for us to learn together, and we get excited thinking about that. We certainly have so much respect for those that can stay married for 50 years or more. Those couples have tremendous wisdom to share with others. But, actually, every married couple has some wisdom to share with others. And many couples have been faithful to pour those insights into couples around them. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons we started Home Encouragement’s Marriage Hall of Fame!

In this episode, we speak candidly about a few of the important things that we’ve learned so far from our marriage, at least up to the point of this Silver Anniversary. Every marriage has its own personality. As we reflect on this milestone together, you’ll get a small bit of insight into what makes us work as a married couple. Actually, we have tried to be reflective about our marriage as we’ve celebrated every anniversary. But we are particularly aware to do so during the biggest milestones. We hope you’ll be encouraged to take opportune moments to do the same in your own marriage. What have you learned as a couple lately? After all, marriage is one great teacher!

No matter how long you’ve been married, even if it’s been just a couple of weeks, we’d love to hear from you about how you’ve benefitted from marriage so far. Feel free to contact us at thehursts@homeencouragement.org and tell us. We’re always looking for fresh insights of encouragement to share with other couples. And, as always, thanks for listening!

Special thanks to our engineer Zach Alkire who makes us sound tolerable! Also, we’re always grateful to Grant Peterson of South Hill Communications for all the nifty things he does to help our communications.

EPISODE 3 – DATE YOUR MATE

Thank you again for listening to our new podcast, “Marriage to the Max”, hosted by Brett & Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement! This week’s topic, “Date Your Mate”, is obviously focused on that very vital subject of marital dating. Even though we have worked with couples for many years now, it always surprises us how many married couples have stopped the fun and creative practice of dating altogether. For some reason, many spouses feel like once a couple has become married, the “dating” years officially end. Au contraire! Married couples need to be going out on dates most of all!

In this episode, we get the conversation started about the importance of dating as married couples. Not only that, but we’d love to hear from you about creative ways that you have kept romance alive through dating. Feel free to comment here or send us an email at thehursts@homeencouragement.org. We are always looking for fresh insights into the world of dating, whether it’s from young singles, engaged couples, newlyweds or veteran married couples. After all, few things help you connect and re-connect as couples as effectively as just enjoying one another’s company through dating.

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to tell others that we’re here and to “like” us on Facebook and Twitter. We appreciate it!

Special thanks to our engineer, Zach Alkire, as well as to Grant Peterson of South Hill Communications, who recently designed our beautiful new Home Encouragement website. Thanks, guys! Opening and closing themes by Loopsound. Some incidental tunage from Zach.

EPISODE 2 – F.A.C.E. TIME

Thanks to everyone who listened to last week’s first episode of our new podcast, “Marriage to the Max”, hosted by Brett and Kellie Hurst of Home Encouragement. It was great hearing from you! This week’s episode is about F.A.C.E. time–a simple way to remember to stay better connected as married couples. During some weeks, daily stressors alone can keep spouses from being intimate on any level. Couples can quickly get discouraged. However, simply being emotionally engaged with one another on a regular basis can be just the antidote from letting everyday routines get the best of you.

Here are the main ingredients to remember about FACE Time: Focus on one another, Ask meaningful questions, Care for your partner, Ease into a routine. Two or three times a week for even just a few minutes each day will get things started nicely. We hope this is a helpful tool for your marriage. Give us your feedback.

And thanks for listening to “Marriage to the Max”. We will do these podcasts for as long as we feel like folks are listening! We appreciate the great encouragement from Week One! And if you ever want to contact us, please feel free to email us at thehursts@homeencouragement.org. We would be honored to respond.

As always, thanks to our engineer Zach Alkire for his cheerleading and bodacious tunes. Opening and closing theme songs by Loopsound.

EPISODE 1 – THE THREE TYPES OF MARRIAGE

Welcome to our new blogsite for the Marriage to the Max Podcast. Marriage to the Max is a weekly podcast hosted by Brett & Kellie Hurst, co-founders of Home Encouragement in Houston, Texas. Our goal is to encourage married couples to take marriage to the next level. We have a simple hope…and that is to make marriage a front-burner conversation! We are grateful to you for your interest in this podcast and we hope you will enjoy it.

This week’s introductory topic delves into three basic kinds of marriages: The Connecting Marriage, The Coasting Marriage, and the Crisis Marriage. We believe that all married couples have the potential to eventually become a Connecting Marriage…with lots of grace, hard work and divine help!

Thanks to our engineer and friend Zach Alkire for his diligence and for funky incidental music. Opening and closing themes by Loopsound.