A NEW LEARNING
After being married for forty-one years and after officiating hundreds of marriages over forty years, and after observing the confusion, dysfunction, dissolution and calamity of many marriages I know that marriages should be better. Whether they can be is going to always be a matter for two individuals within a marriage to determine.
Having been around the block a few times I have seen good speakers address the subject. They come around cyclically, different spokespeople in every decade as though adjusting the important value lessons within the culture of the time. Currently one of the best presenters is
Mark Gungor who is the senior pastor of
Celebration Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a church that is multi-site with three campuses. He is also a motivational speaker, author, musician, producer and CEO of
Laugh Your Way America. He has been married to Debbie for 34 years and has two married children and three grandchildren. Mark has developed seminars in which he teaches in a comedic manner principles that empower marriages. I am sure that his approach could become clichéd and tiresome as all these tutorials can, but Mark is an effective communicator even on video.
The very fact that you can draw a husband and wife to the same venue to listen together is a breakthrough in some marriages. Humour and truth are a good blend for effecting learning. I could consume 30 minutes of your time right now if you watch all the links I am going to list for you. These are on YouTube
1.
Men’s Brains and Women’s Brains – 10:28 minutes
2.
Men's Sex Drive – 3:54 minutes
3.
Ask More Than Once – 5:21 minutes
4.
Rainbow – 2:36 minutes
5.
Song of Solomon Girl - 4:06 minutes
Mark’s popular seminar,
Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage® is available for purchase as a DVD and has
now as a book. It can be a helpful personal or group study. Bailing on a marriage is a pretty common solution for people these days. In these formats, then content explores numerous subjects such as the myth of a "soul mate," the different ways men and women think, the conflicting levels of libido, and the necessity to forgive. Gungor asserts what many of us have heard before that the key to marital bliss is not romance but work and skill. Couples must work at maintaining their relationship and developing the skills to make it succeed.
Mark has been featured on Focus on the Family, TBN and ABC News. His daily radio program,
The Better Marriage Minute, is heard on 250 radio stations. In the fall of 2008, his new radio talk show,
The Mark Gungor Radio Show, debuted, broadcasting live over the Internet weekly. He is also the creator of a new television series, Love, Marriage, and Stinking Thinking.
I am a realist/impressionist/representational painter. I like painting subjects to look like recognizable subjects. In recent weeks I have been faced with an uncommon task, painting a theme. A client asked me to paint two trees with interlocking branches and roots as a symbol of a marriage union. This will be a wedding gift soon. That is, if I don’t destroy my two attempts first. If they survive and if my client likes one of them well enough, we will complete the sale. I am sure that I am harder on myself than the client will be, but I can’t be certain of that either since Christine, my resident art critic keeps pointing out features needing improvement. It’s been an exercise in self-realization. I am less able to imagine images to convey concepts than I thought I was. I have greater respect now for aboriginal artists who capture the spirit of nature and creatures, and for cartoonists who visualize thematic interaction between people. There has been some artistic enjoyment in this work and a strong dose of frustration. Since I was told that the engaged couple are deeply committed to their Christian faith, I have painted subtle symbols such as the Holy Spirit superimposed as a dove in the foliage of the joined trees, and the tree roots sunk into the foundational principles and truths of the ten commandments and the assurance of Christ’s divinity with the open tomb underground. The paintings are coming along, with more fine touches to be added. Yes, I did two paintings and that will give my client a choice. She can have them both but she can choose the one she will gift to her friends. Upon completion, I can hardly wait to get at my next two commissions, true subjects that reflect light and create shadow. I would be a lousy and dissatisfied abstract painter even though I often appreciate some other artists’ work. 
