The Third Strand

05/09/2026

Facts!

05/09/2026

Colossians 1:18 ESV

[18] And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

The Third Strand

05/09/2026

Amen

Most couples who end up in crisis didn't stop loving each other. They stopped paying attention to each other.

It happens gradually. Life gets full. Kids, career, ministry, obligations. The relationship that used to get your best energy starts getting whatever is left over. And because the love is still there it's easy to assume the marriage is fine.

But love without attention is like a plant without water. The roots can be deep and the intention can be good and it will still wither if it isn't tended consistently.

Here's what we've seen after working with thousands of couples: the marriages that quietly fell apart rarely had a dramatic turning point. They had a thousand small moments where one spouse chose something else over the other. Not out of malice. Out of distraction. Out of assumption. Out of the dangerous belief that love alone would hold everything together without any intentional investment to back it up.

Attention is not a luxury in marriage. It is the currency of intimacy. And your spouse knows the difference between being physically present and being genuinely there.

What's one way you could give your spouse your full and undivided attention this week?

05/09/2026

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Heb. 4:16NIV

05/09/2026

Good morning!

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

05/08/2026

It's one of the most common dynamics we see in marriages in crisis. A husband who has quietly checked out. Not dramatically. No grand exit. Just a slow withdrawal from leadership, from engagement, from showing up as the man his marriage needs him to be.

And into that vacuum steps his wife. Not because she wanted to. Because someone had to. The bills needed paying, the kids needed leading, the decisions needed making. So she picked it up. And over time what started as necessity hardened into control.

Now he's resentful. She's exhausted. And neither one can quite remember how they got here.

Here's what God's Word has to say about it: the answer isn't for her to put it down and wait. And it isn't for him to suddenly demand it back. The answer for both of them starts in the same place. Humility. Honesty. A willingness to look at their own contribution to the dynamic before pointing across the room.

Ephesians 5 calls husbands to lead sacrificially and wives to trust that leadership. But that passage was never meant to be a weapon. It was meant to be an invitation to something better than the exhausting dance most couples are doing.

Where in your marriage have you been waiting for your spouse to change instead of asking God to change you?

05/08/2026

Praise Him!

1. Choose each other daily
Send the text. Give the hug. Make the call.
Love is built in the small daily moments.
2. Make time to reconnect
Put the phones down for 15 minutes
and really ask, “How are you doing?”
3. Stop keeping score
Marriage works better when both people
serve instead of silently counting.
4. Give grace quickly
Your spouse will have bad days.
Respond with patience, not punishment.
5. Invite God into everything
Pray before reacting.
Pray before deciding.
Pray before giving up.

04/29/2026

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
2 Cor. 6:14ESV

04/29/2026

Amen

Remember how you flirted when you were dating? What made you stop? Get the spark back in your marriage by doing some of the things you used to do—date, laugh, flirt, play, and get curious about one another.

Follow us at for more inspiration for your marriage.

04/24/2026

Don't stop dreaming together! Part of living purpose-focused rather than problem-focused in your marriage is by shifting your focus from what you don't want to what you DO want. 🔄

Share this post if you needed this reminder today!

04/24/2026

There's a possessiveness that creeps into marriage over time. Not always the controlling kind. Sometimes it's subtler than that. It shows up as entitlement. As disappointment when your spouse doesn't meet your expectations. As frustration that the person you married isn't performing the way you need them to.

But your spouse was God's long before they were yours.

He knit them together. He knows them more completely than you ever will. He has plans for them that extend far beyond your marriage and your lifetime. And He entrusted them to you, not so you could reshape them in your image, but so you could love them in His.

That reframe changes everything. When you see your spouse as someone God loves deeply and has placed in your care, the way you speak to them changes. The patience you extend changes. The grace you offer when they fall short changes.

You're not just a husband or a wife. You're a steward of someone God calls His own.

That's not a small thing. It's worth living up to.

How would you treat your spouse differently today if you saw them first as God's?