Love Archives ⋆ Mike and Susan Dawson

Are you and your spouse stuck in the Crazy Cycle?

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:12:37+00:00Love, Respect|

As we’ve learned over the past couple of weeks, a wife has one important need — to feel loved. Conversely, a husband has his own important need that must be met — to feel respected. Dr. Emerson Eggerichs has researched, taught, and written about this fact for more than 40 years, and he believes that this love and respect cycle continues uninterrupted until each of these needs is met. This interaction is known as the Crazy Cycle, and it shows how important it is for the man to love his wife and the wife to respect her husband. Without those basic essentials, they cannot be happy, content, and confident about [...]

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The Best Present You Can Give This Christmas: Gift of Love

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:12:48+00:00Love|

When Christmas rolls around, we think of Christmas trees, multi-colored lights, parties, food, gifts under the tree, and lots of fun and laughter with friends, family, and loved ones. This is all a gift of love. We also think of Santa Claus and children opening presents. And we think of the wise men, the star over Bethlehem, and, of course, the Virgin Mary and the baby in the manger. It’s all feel-good stuff, and we crave it. We also LOVE it. It’s during times like these that we need to remember that word — LOVE. God is the Gift of Love God IS love. And the reason baby Jesus was [...]

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Communication Fails vs Love Bank 2.0

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:13:04+00:00Communication, Love|

A common statement I hear from couples who are having problems in their marriage is that they aren’t communicating. This can indicate Love Bank balance issues. “We just aren’t communicating like we used to!” “Gee, ya know … we just aren’t talking. And when we do, we end up fighting over something.” “I don’t think either of us is communicating how we really feel.” Communication breakdowns are normal. They happen to all of us. But we shouldn’t allow those breakdowns to last for too long. We need to investigate the root cause and do something about it. After all, communication is vital in marriage! It’s the only way we can [...]

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The Secret Sauce to a Woman’s Greatest Need: LOVE!

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:13:07+00:00Love, Relationships|

In last week’s blog post, we kick-started a conversation on the differences between spouses and how it’s usually those differences that cause the most conflict with couples we see. Plainly, men and women think differently and have very specific needs that need to be met and understood to improve generosity, love, and grace toward each other. Borrowing a page or two — or three — from Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn’s books for women only and for men only, we’ve already dove into a man’s greatest need — respect. Now, let’s talk about “a woman’s greatest need.” What a wife needs — LOVE! I often share funny stories with couples that [...]

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Putting good things into your marriage: Love and Respect, Appreciation and Gratitude, Treasure and Serve

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:14:04+00:00Love, Respect|

Have you ever heard the term, stagnant marriage? It’s when things in your relationship no longer feel exciting and fresh. It’s not that you don’t love one another. But, you’re both kinda just … there. This is normal, by the way — we just need to find a way to snap out of it. But how do we do that? As we learned last week, you have to keep putting good things into your marriage. Whether that be small acts of kindness like texting, “I love you,” speaking each other’s love language, or doing something fun like reenacting your first date, we have to constantly show how important we are [...]

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Putting good things into your marriage: Love and Fun

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:14:05+00:00Love|

We’ve all heard the saying that you never stop working on your house. As pretty and perfect as it is, there is always something to add or improve as the years go by — upgrade the landscaping, re-paint a bedroom, remodel the kitchen, add a patio cover or a pool, fix stuff, etc. And just when we finish one thing, a new one takes its place. Wait! Why are we talking about houses? Because they are a great analogy for relationships. We should always be putting good things into our marriage, too — whether our lives together couldn’t be any more perfect or it’s time to look at how to [...]

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5 Ways To Fall Back In Love With Your Spouse

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:14:51+00:00Love, Relationships, Uncategorized|

We all remember when we couldn’t imagine spending a millisecond away from the love of our life. We’d hang out, talk on the phone until all hours of the night, go on trips, sacrifice time for each other, buy gifts, and even make up cute nicknames. It’s an amazing feeling to be that in love! But as we’ve written before, somewhere along the way — marriage, careers, children, etc. — we settle into routines, spend less time together, and are less intentional with one another. We lose sight of the expressions of love that made us feel so good about each other. This may make you even begin to wonder, [...]

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15 Simple Ways to Reignite Your Love

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:14:54+00:00Love, Relationships, Uncategorized|

When Mike and I met in college it was unusual circumstances. His sister was a dorm mate of mine and introduced us the first time. She gets credit for our meeting. However, we didn’t get to know one another until a year later in a business fraternity. It was lust at first sight and love at 2nd sight. WHEN YOU FIRST MET - REMEMBER!! It was magical when you and your spouse first fell in love. As a couple, we were so sweet, passionate and patient with each other. Staying out for hours, walking across campus or sitting in the dorm lobby, just getting to know one another. We talked [...]

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15 Simple Ways to Reignite Your Love

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:14:58+00:00Intimacy, Love|

When Mike and I met in college it was unusual circumstances. His sister was a dorm mate of mine and introduced us the first time. She gets credit for our meeting. However, we didn’t get to know one another until a year later in a business fraternity. It was passion at 2nd sight you might say. Remember When... Remember how it used to be when you and your spouse first fell in love. We were so sweet and passionate about each other. The two of us would stay out for hours, walking across campus or sitting in the dorm lobby, just getting to know one another. We talked about so [...]

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HOW YOU CAN INFLUENCE THE BALANCE IN YOUR LOVE BANK?

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:15:02+00:00Connection, Love|

" This is a simple concept and yet many marriage problems come from people not implementing the concept. It’s not that people don’t know or understand how to do this – They just DON’T DO IT. THE LOVE BANK- Dr. Willard Harley Inside all of us is a Love Bank with accounts in the names of everyone we know. When these people are associated with our good feelings, "love units" are deposited into their accounts, and when they are associated with our bad feelings, love units are withdrawn. We are emotionally attracted to people with positive balances and repulsed by those with negative balances. This is the way our emotions [...]

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