Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Finding Humor and Harmony in Marriage
After more than 45 years of laughter, love, and partnership, my wife Sharon and I have gathered a treasure trove of insights into what makes a marriage flourish. Today, I'm thrilled to share three of these keys to happiness, starting with the profound impact of mutual respect. It's about valuing your partner's perspectives and feelings, even when they clash with your own. We also touch on the joy and growth that comes from learning new things together—trust me, even our ballroom dancing fiasco turned into a delightful memory that keeps us chuckling years later.
Celebrating the small moments is another gem that we've discovered over the years. Whether it's savoring a well-brewed cup of coffee or creating playful traditions, these little experiences weave the rich fabric of a lifelong partnership. Join me as I share stories from my own marriage and invite you to reflect on the simple joys that make your relationship unique. Grab your coffee and get comfortable—let’s rejoice in the gift of companionship and explore how love, laughter, forgiveness, and humility can transform your marriage into a joyful journey.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day, so grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. Good morning, everybody, and welcome. It's Wednesday and we are right smack dab in the middle of a mini-series that I started yesterday, where we're talking about six keys to a happy marriage, and then tomorrow, on Thursday, we're going to talk about the cornerstone the cornerstone that makes any marriage successful.
DannyMac:Yesterday we talked about three keys that we felt were important to keep a marriage going and happy. First one was embrace change. It's going to happen. There's no sense fighting it, so we need to embrace it and let ourselves change with the changes that are taking place around us. Secondly, we talked about keeping the romance alive. Yeah, keep dating your spouse. Keeping the romance alive. Yeah, keep dating your spouse. Enjoy going out for dinner and doing fun and romantic things together. It will keep your marriage strong and growing. And the third thing was make sure that we keep communication happening, and one of the greatest parts of communication is when you can laugh together and enjoy a moment. Enjoy something fun and funny that you maybe didn't expect. Today I've got three more keys to help encourage you.
DannyMac:Number four it's simply respect. Respect and support are essential ingredients that knit our lives together. Respect means that you value your partner's thoughts, their feelings, their desires, especially even when they are different from your own. I know, guys, that's not always easy, but it really is important. Never forget that part of marriage is building the relationship where you encourage one another. You help each other grow to become what you should be as people and as part of God's family. Listen to this from Ephesians 5, verse 33. Each of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. That's mutual respect.
DannyMac:Number five is keep learning together. They say that learning keeps the brain young, so a couple needs to find some things that both of you will enjoy, or maybe trying something new. At one point my wife and I decided we were going to try to learn ballroom dancing. It didn't quite go as we'd hoped, but we look back on it now and laugh at ourselves and enjoy the idea that we actually tried something that neither of us was very good at, but we had fun. Don't be afraid to try something new and then, even if it's not perfect, you still have learned something more and you're closer to each other. The best case scenario is you gain a new skill. Worst case you have something to laugh about and go remember when, and that will keep you chuckling together through a few anniversaries, chuckling together through a few anniversaries.
DannyMac:And the sixth key today that I want to give you is treasure the small moments. My wife and I have been married for over 45 years and it's easy to take each other for granted, so we need to remember to celebrate the small things A well-done chore, a perfectly brewed cup of coffee, or even not stealing the blankets off of your spouse when you're climbing back into bed in the middle of the night. And how about creating some new traditions, like talking together every evening about your day? Or having one evening a week where all you have for supper is cheese and crackers and popcorn, so that you can talk together or watch a movie that you both want to see. Or maybe doing something completely silly and off the wall, like sharing your best dad jokes with your wife, or reminding your spouse of the thing that made you laugh a couple weeks ago. There's been evenings when Sharon and I have gone to bed and we're laying there and one of us tells a joke that the other one hasn't heard. It's silly, it's dumb, but we're so tired that we just laugh. And then we can't stop laughing, never stop laughing with each other.
DannyMac:Enjoy your time together and be thankful for the wonderful gift of your spouse. You see, maintaining a happy marriage after 45 years it requires a mix of things. You have to have love and laughter and you have to have forgiveness and humility. You have to learn to forgive and forget, and it takes work, a lot of work, but it's well worth it. I hope you have a great day, my friends, and be sure to join me tomorrow when we talk about the cornerstone that can help make any marriage successful. Have a great day and we will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday, right here at Starting Right with Danny Mac.
