Team Us: A Christian Marriage Podcast

What if every time you go out on a date with your spouse, all you talk about is work, bills, schedules, and — if you have them — kids? As vitally important as those things are to discuss, we chat about how you can have a date-night conversation that’s NOT about work, bills, schedules, or kids. Listen in as we share four steps you can put into practice. Take the "Us Time" Challeng...

On this episode, we’re doing something a little different! Instead of hearing from us, you’ll listen in on a conversation we had with Todd and Brooke Tilghman. Todd is best known as the Season 18 winner of NBC’s The Voice , and what we really love about their story is that if it hadn’t been for Brooke, Todd would have never auditioned for the show. Talk about teamwork! Todd...

Have you ever heard of the game “In So Many Words”? We play it to kick off this episode on communication. But while word games can be fun, sometimes communication in marriage is frustrating. We’ve all felt it! So, how do we navigate it? Listen in as we talk about communication killers that might be frustrating conversations. We also share three steps you can take when talking to...

On this episode, we originally planned to share with you safeguards you can put in place to protect your marriage. But, as Ted says, that’s been done—a lot! So instead, we turn the topic on its head and discuss what you can do to ruin your marriage. Listen in as we share four things you might be doing to hurt your relationship. You’ll hear why each of these is destructive and why...

Have you ever had a Valentine’s Day go wrong? We have! During our first year as a married couple, we ended up fighting over what we now realize was just a big misunderstanding. We learned that how we respond to each other’s words and actions on Valentine’s Day and any day makes a difference in our relationship. Listen in as we share how that first Valentine’s Day went wrong...

We’re about a month into the new year, and we’re back with brand-new episodes! Maybe your new year has started off strong. Or, like us, you’ve faced some challenges. Today, we’re talking about how you can team up not just for the new year, but for every minute, hour, day, week, and month of the year! Listen in as we share three practical ways you can walk in unity. We also...

If you love listening to "Team Us," we want to introduce you to another LifeAudio podcast we think you'll enjoy: "Faith Over Fear."   Scripture assures us that God does not want us to live enslaved to fear, weighed down by stress, and overpowered by personal weakness. Christ promised us joy, peace, and inexpressible freedom. He also promised to give us the power to experience each of those superna...

We’ve made a lot of stressful decisions together over the years. Some have related to job loss, challenges with our kids, financial pressures, and, most recently, our cross-country move. It would be easy for these decisions to pull us apart and turn us against each other instead of drawing us closer. That’s why we are always determined in advance to stay united. Perhaps you and your spouse are cur...

If you ask us why church is good for our marriage, Ted will most likely quip, “I met my wife at church. That was good for my marriage.” Wit aside, though, we take being an active member of our local church seriously. In the two decades since we first met, we’ve been purposeful as a couple in making regular church attendance and active participation a consistent part of our lives, and it’s benefite...

What do conflict, birthdays, Nehemiah, and buried issues have in common? We talk about them all in this episode! As we’ve said before, conflict in marriage is inevitable. And for us, disagreements have never been about whether or not we’ll have them, but how we deal with them when we do. Listen in as we talk about practical ways to work together as a team to resolve disagreements. We’ll share how...

Some people might assume we’re some sort of communication experts because we both have master’s degrees in communication. But today we’re going to let you in on a not-so-secret truth. We aren’t. We studied communication because we knew we needed help. And, all these years later, we’re still learning. Join us as we share some tools, tips, and techniques we’ve discovered. Listen in as we talk about...

Many couples believe that the intense romantic love that brings them together will keep them together long-term. And, while it’s true that these in-love emotions are exhilarating and worth savoring, you need more than feelings for your marriage to go the distance. It has to be based on more. Listen in as we talk about marital culture shock and how obligation isn’t a dirty word. We share how it’s a...

We often look at each other and say, “We’re so glad we have a boring marriage.” You might think that sounds crazy—and maybe it does! After all, boring isn’t the adjective most of us want to describe our marriages. But we’re not talking about boring as many of us narrowly define the term: dull, uninteresting, tiresome. We’re putting a new spin on the word! Listen in as we share three things that ch...

We’ve gone on many fun dates in our twenty years of marriage! Listen in as we do a not-so-rapid-fire Q&A round sharing highlights from our top dates over the years. You’ll hear about our unplanned convertible ride through the desert, the time we flew kites in the park, our dinner date that included a lot of fake blood, and our evening in a castle. Even though we’ve made it a priority over the year...

It's taken us over a year to bring you season two of the Team Us podcast. But we’re finally back behind the mics, and we have a lot of good reasons why it’s taken us so long. Listen in as we share about our cross-country move, road-trip stops, house-building woes, and our impromptu lunch with Russians. We’re not just reconnecting with you, though. We’re also sharing practical ways you can reconnec...

We all want to finish well as couples, right? We sure do! Well, it’s the daily decisions we make individually and together that influence how our marriages fare in the long run. Because of this, it’s important to be purposeful to live out the day-to-day in a way that positively affects the years to come. So how can we keep moving toward the finish line united? Listen in as we share why right now m...

Today, we’re talking about how the friends we keep make a difference in our marriages. It’s not only important that as couples we have community, but also that we’re purposeful in whom we bring into our confidence. So, we’re going to share what we call a “friendship inventory” you can do to make sure you’re confiding in the right people. It’s also a helpful tool to determine whether you’re being t...

We’ll tell you that having kids is well worth the effort. There’s nothing like it. We’ve found that God uses parenting to refine and change us in a way other things can’t. That said, parenting has been one of our most challenging team efforts yet. Sometimes the different upbringings and different personalities we’ve brought to our marriage complicate rather than contribute to and enrich our parent...

Sometimes we sit back and wonder how we made it through our weeping years. But here we are, still married, still friends, and still liking each other. It wasn’t easy to remain united when miscarriage, multiple job losses, debt, and a house that wouldn’t sell desperately fought to pull us apart. While an attitude of “us vs. the problem” helped, we realized we couldn’t stop with the idea of us again...

For us, laughter and a sense of levity or lightheartedness has carried us through the years. Laughter has been, as Proverbs 17:22 says, “good medicine” for us. But laughter isn’t something that comes easily for all couples. While we’re not experts on why other couples struggle to laugh together, we do know one of the reasons we can. It’s because we make intentional efforts to live out our marriage...

Bilbo Baggins once referred to adventures as “nasty disturbing comfortable things that make you late for dinner.” In some ways, he’s right. Adventures aren’t simply exciting, thrill-seeking activities. They stretch us in ways that force us to change. What does this have to do with conflict in marriage? Conflict is often uncomfortable and inconvenient. It disturbs our status quo and can even disrup...

After we got married, we were surprised by how differently we celebrated holidays and birthdays. One of us loved to go big, while the other preferred to treat them like any other day. But, as we’ve slowly learned over the years, differences like that don’t have to divide us. When we approach them with the right attitude, they can unite us. As a couple, our differences can serve as a great reminder...

From its inconceivable R.O.U.Ses to its iconic lines, the 1987 film The Princess Bride is a favorite at our house. For us, one of the most memorable characters is Inigo Montoya. His patience and persistence as he hunts for the six-fingered man remind us that it takes time to execute a “death wish.” But what does a “death wish” have to do with marriage? While we joined a new team when we promised,...

Have you ever watched curling matches during the Winter Olympics? We have! One year, we found ourselves hooked on this sport that’s nicknamed “chess on ice!” And, as we observed the strategy, intentionality, and sweeping that curling requires, we couldn’t help but compare it to marriage! Every team, whether it’s in curling or in marriage, does better with a game plan. Yet, it’s the sweeping—or gra...

As a couple, we’ve had a lot of firsts! From the first time we met over 19 years ago to our first kind-of date to the first time we held hands. So, on this very first episode of the Team Us podcast, we share some of those firsts with you. Yet we don’t stop there! We also talk about the very first human team—Adam and Eve. They’re a duo we consider history’s most infamous couple. Because, as we all...