Filipino Actress Jewel Mische-Kurzer on Making a Long Distance Relationship Work

Filipino actress / celebrity Jewel Mische, whom I briefly featured on this blog for her vow of abstinence before marriage is now married to her American husband Allister Kurzer (they've been married for a year). I'm still impressed with their maturity and openness to share their faith to the Philippine entertainment media. Check out their advice to other couples in long distance relationships - starting at the 1.30 min mark of the video. They definitely got it right! I wish this couple all the best in their marriage. Follow Jewel on Instagram.

Happy Soldier! Black Friday Shopping with My Wife

Call me the "Black Friday man," dad or husband! I did it! I made it through Black Friday shopping with my wife. It was a mission I was not willing to accept, but as loving husband who wants to serve his wife, I did anyway. I drove the van, fought for parking spaces, stood in line in her behalf, held her purse and carried shopping bags. To prevent myself from snapping, I kept myself entertained by documenting my experiences during Black Friday 2015 on Instagram. Read below... Smile soldier!

What A Wife Needs From Her Husband and Vice Versa

 

If you read the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, it outlines five ways to express and experience love that the author calls "love languages": gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service and physical touch. Author Dave Willis also published a blog post that summed it all for us the 3 biggest needs of most husbands and the 3 biggest needs for most wives.

Whether is Chapman or Willis' advice, there is no one universal way to show and receive love from your spouse. It's imperative to know your spouse well. Dads and husbands, ask your wives what ways they feel loved and what can you do to provide this kind of love for her. Allow her to answer honestly.

Here's the list from Willis. 

Three Primary Needs of Husbands:

1. Respect.
Men don’t often admit, but we are desperate for our wives’ respect. With it, we feel like we can take on the world. Without it, life can feel like it’s falling apart. A wife’s respect has the power to bring out the best aspect of him.

2. Sex.  
A husband can deal with almost anything if his sex life is great.

3. Peace in the home.
Men don’t always know how to articulate this, but we have a deep desire for our wives to cultivate an atmosphere of “peace” in the home.

Three Primary Needs of Wives:

1. Love.
The “love” wives need is embodied in consistent adoration, affection, protection and rock-solid commitment from their husbands. Men, love your wife with everything you’ve got.

2. Communication.
A woman’s need for communication is usually just as strong as a man’s need for sex. Think about that guys... if your wife needs it as much as you need sex, that should motivate you to make it a top priority!

3. Security.
A woman needs to know that her heart, her finances, her family and her physical safety are in the best hands with her husband. She needs to know that her husband would gladly give his own life to save hers... even more importantly, he would gladly spend every moment of his life working to give to her and share with her the best life possible.


Read Dave Willis' full article and get his new book here.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry! Adultery Website Ashley Madison Launched in the Philippines

Source: abs-cbn.com

"Ang buhay ay maikli, mangaliwa." Or, in English "Life is short so have an affair" is the slogan of the Ashley Madison Agency, an agency that will help married people hook up with each other. Recently, the website was launched in the Philippines offering the same adultery service to married and committed Filipino couples. For a certain amount, they guarantee that you will have an affair within 90 days or your money back.

Ashley Madison makes it sound so easy and simple because no one will ever know! What they don't tell you about is the heartache and pain that takes place when the affair is found out.

Flirt With Your Spouse! Here are Some Creative Ways

I love flirting with my wife. It communicates sexual interest to her in a playful way. Marriage expert Mark Merrill agrees and said married people should flirt with each other a lot and should once in a while flirt in front of the kids to reinforce a sense of love and stability in the home. He suggest a few creative and fun tips on how to flirt with your spouse:

Marriage is NOT For You

I love this post from blogger Seth Adam Smith. Something worth reading!

Seth is married to his wife Kim for a year and a half, but he concluded that married life isn't for him. Why? Because he realized that, marriage is about the person you married.

One doesn't get married to make him or herself happy - you marry to make someone else happy. Your marriage isn’t for yourself, you're marrying for a family, for your future children.

"Oh Sweet Lorraine" - A Touching Story About the Beauty of Life-Long Married Love

Fred Stobaugh recently lost his wife, Lorraine after 75 years of marriage. After he saw an ad for a small music studio’s songwriting contest, Fred (who is not a musician or songwriter) submitted a musical tribute to his wife, entitled “Oh Sweet Lorraine.”

Instead of rejecting Fred's entry because it doesn't comply to the contest's guidelines, they decided to professionally record it for him.

Filipino Babies are Not Blessings?

“Babies are not blessings!” This is one of the lines that I can’t forget or even seem to digest from an article written by Ana Santos in Rappler.com. I’m aware of the problem of teen pregnancies in the Philippines but I never considered Santos’ perspective to discourage teenagers from getting pregnant.

It’s true that more teenagers are having unplanned pregnancies in the Philippines. It’s a problem to teenagers if they aren’t physically, financially and emotionally ready for it.

But I prefer a good education on healthy relationships and abstinence in schools and especially in churches to decrease it than preaching babies as an economic inconvenience.

Headline: How Cheating Can Save your Marriage

The front page of The Huffington Post featured an article with the headline "How Cheating Can Save your Marriage." It's on a research study on female infidelity that found the following conclusion:

Of the wives with whom I've spoken, close to half believe that the 'other man' can actually help them to stay in an unhappy or suboptimal marriage because they find their happiness with the lover. This group of wives who remain with their husbands feels more in touch with their desires in this extra curricular relationship than in their marriages and they no longer feel that life is passing them by.

Pat Robertson and Alzheimers

My dad suffered from Alzheimer's and I will always remember my mom's unconditional care for him until he passed away in 2004. She cared for my dad because its the right thing to do.

Last week on the 700 Club, Pat Robertson said a man could divorce his wife if she had Alzheimer’s since it was “a kind of death.” He then added, “but get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer.” Yes, please get another answer because his answer couldn’t be more wrong. Our vow for better or for worse must include worse.

Robertson’s words deeply contradict a Biblical worldview of what it means to be human. Alzheimer’s can be considered “A kind of death,” but so could depression, brain damage, Parkinson’s and all sorts of conditions. But even so, a “kind of death” isn’t death, and it doesn’t make anyone less human or less worthy of dignity and love. No one loses the image of God, even if they no longer know it.

(Adapted from The Point, by John Stonestreet)

Marriage Annulment Cases in the Philippines Rising

According to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) annulment cases in the Philippines almost doubled in 10 years- more than 8,000 couples filed for annulment in 2010 about 22 cases filed per day.

The Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is alarmed, and they should be. Numbers don’t lie and these figures ought to tell us that our culture is headed in the wrong direction.

Will the Royal Marriage Survive?

Could there have been a better way to showcase marriage than today’s Royal Wedding?

(Three major Filipino networks covered the Royal Wedding in the Philippines).

A colleague wrote an excellent piece on the Royal wedding for National Review Online and today’s BreakPoint commentary from Chuck Colson is based on the article.

“Can this marriage be saved?” writer Anne Morse asked. For the answer, she asked several marriage experts about William and Kate’s chances, based on such factors as their family background, age, faith commitment, life choices, and royal expectations.

Marriage Contract Expiration Date: Deal or No Deal?

GMA 7 news reported that Filipino feminist group, 1-ABAAM were proposing a 10-year expiration date on marriage contracts and failure to extend the contract automatically makes the marriage null and void (click here to see video report). Though I know the effort is a long shot from ever happening, the subject can still be considered alarming since proponents and their liberal agenda made it to prime time local news.

Adapting from an article I read, the assault on marriage  "uses the rhetoric and language" of choice and the marketplace to make it sound attractive and convenient to everyone. The market rhetoric is a subtle disguise on a group's extreme liberal agenda and their goal to create the perfect independent woman. This worldview is deceptive and dangerous to Filipino families.

What do you think will happen if marriage simply become a "contract" and stopped being a holy matrimony? Its anything goes! Both parties are free to negotiate and demand terms of their contract. Instead of the solemn vow made before God and the community, it becomes a "business deal" where the main rule is to get what I want and get the best end of the deal. It will weaken important values such as generosity and self-sacrifice essential to a healthy family. Because it will encourage selfish actions and destroy families, expiration dates on marriage contracts is a "NO DEAL!"