Relationships Archives ⋆ Mike and Susan Dawson

20 Ways to Inspire Your Husband

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:12:36+00:00Communication, Relationships|

Ever wonder how to give your man that little lift he needs during a hard week or time in life? Everyone goes through trials whether they come in the form of challenges or changes. And anyone- especially your hubby- can use some encouragement along the way. It’s no secret that men often feel like they are living a lie about who they really are and what they are capable of. In her book For Women Only, Shaunti Feldhahn sights multiple surveys she conducted personally. She talked with men from all walks of life and she concludes that a majority of men just need a little inspiration in their lives to [...]

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The 3 Circles: How this Could Change Everything in your Life

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:12:38+00:00Identity, Relationships|

We’ve covered a lot of ground over the previous three blog posts regarding The 3 Circles. Obviously, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. But the big question is, what have we learned? Here’s a quick breakdown … “When we accept what Jesus did for us on the cross, He gives us our identity as a person. We can now have a relationship with God, which He desires from us! And when we do that, we can live out our purpose in life.” God’s heart is for His creation, His people, to have a heart that is free to live. He wants us to live free. [...]

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The 3 Circles: Relationship and Purpose

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:12:38+00:00Identity, Relationships, Uncategorized|

To continue our conversation about The Father’s Heart this week, we will dive into the next two circles — Experience His Presence (Relationship) and Release His Kingdom (Purpose). Quick Recap of The Father's Heart! The 3 Circles represent The Father’s Heart, which helps us understand who we are, who God is, and what we were created to do. As we’ve discussed over the previous two posts, there is a very specific way we should proceed through these circles. The gospel message, and God’s Heart for each of us, starts with “Receiving His Grace” - Identity, and moves us to “Experience His Presence” -Relationship, and we “Release His Kingdom” -Purpose in [...]

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The 3 Circles: Receive His Grace — Identity

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:12:39+00:00Identity, Relationships|

Last week, we introduced The 3 Circles, an understanding of the gospel and God’s desire for us helps us understand who we are, who God is, and what we were created to do. And just like anything else, we must find the right starting point to make it all work. But that’s just the thing … where do we start? If you look at the image below, there are three intersecting rings (Receive His Grace, Experience His Presence, and Release His Kingdom). It’s not like we’re opening a book to Page 1, right? Any one of them can be the starting point. So should we just start with our purpose, [...]

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The 3 Circles: Who I Am, Who God Is, and What I’m Created to Do

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:12:39+00:00Identity, Relationships|

“What’s my purpose in life?” “What am I here for?” “Who am I?” Have you heard these questions from someone before or even asked them yourself? I think we all reflect on these sometimes. We will answer these using The Three Circles. My church uses an illustration called The Father’s Heart that helps us gain a better understanding of who we are, who God is, and what we were created to do. And at the risk of sounding partial, it’s really awesome! Susan and I believe it clearly portrays our true identity, but at the same time, the reality of how too often we incorrectly think about ourselves and view [...]

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Being Married to Her Ought to be Simple Right? (Wrong!)

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:13:06+00:00Relationships|

Everyone’s heard of and likely experienced the fairy tale courtship. Basically, guy meets girl … he sweeps her off her feet … there’s passion and romance … great friendship … she feels loved and cherished. He understands her like no other woman. And then, the wedding happens. And the man can’t wrap his brain around how life became so confusing. As a man and marriage counselor, I certainly can see the confusion that we men have regarding women. Men are generally solution-oriented. We see a task, and we fix it. We simply need to get it done, and we don’t let things get in the way. But therein lies the [...]

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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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Understanding The Father’s Heart

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

Following up on our blog from last week on prayer, Susan and I wanted to share a powerful lesson from Valley Creek Church called The Father’s Heart. So many times, couples forget who they are and get caught up in what they have TO DO and what God wants them TO DO that they begin to lose sight of their identity and purpose. In other words, who they are, and who they have been created to be. This visual below and the script that goes with it are a great way of reminding us that we shouldn’t be thinking in terms of “earning” our way into God’s presence or in [...]

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Healthy Marriage Relationship starts with a Healthy YOU!

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:13:50+00:00Emotion, Relationships, Uncategorized|

A healthy marriage starts with two healthy people. What we mean by that goes beyond eating right and exercising, though those are still two very important things. More importantly, it means thinking the right way about your marriage, learning to self-soothe, practicing good self-care, influencing your partner, and being emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy. We’ve touched on this over the previous four blogs, which on the surface were about improving relationships but really focused on how being the best YOU inevitably makes your relationship great. Your marriage can’t be healthy if only one of you subscribes to that mindset. As they say, it takes two! And If you’re both healthy [...]

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4 Ways To Repair Broken Trust In Your Marriage

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2024-01-08T01:14:16+00:00Relationships, Trust|

Married couples put so much time and effort into building and maintaining trust in each other that you’d think they could withstand anything life throws at them — including when one spouse’s trust in the other has been broken. But the reality is that even in the strongest of unions, trust is fragile. And once it’s broken trust is difficult to repair. There are many ways for trust to be broken in a marriage. Some are big, and some aren’t. Yet they all feel massive. One spouse is caught continuously lying to the other A constant string of broken promises Infidelity or emotional cheating Not being there for your [...]

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