Ep.51 - Greg Smalley amid Focus on The Family’s Marriage Champions | Shared Spirituality | Happy Marriage | Conflict Resolution

Take the Focus on the Family Marriage Assessment here:

In this episode of the Virtuous Leaders Podcast, Dr. Johann D'Souza sits down with Dr. Greg Smalley, the Vice President of Marriage and Family Formation at Focus on the Family and the former President of the National Institute of Marriage.

Key Discussion Points:

• Dr. Smalley's role at Focus on the Family in helping couples prepare for marriage, keep their marriage strong, navigate crises, and equip them to invest in other couples

• The importance of being a "marriage champion" by keeping one's own marriage strong and investing in other couples in big and small ways

• Five tips for a happy marriage: learning to resolve conflict well, resisting the natural drift in marriage by spending 10 minutes a day sharing one's inner life, maintaining a shared spiritual relationship, making decisions as a team, and reminding each other of being on the same team

• The value of Focus on the Family's marriage assessment, which identifies three areas of strength and three areas for growth based on research on healthy marriages

• The Hope Restored program, a marriage intensive for couples in crisis, and how the learnings from 15,000 couples have been applied to create biblically sound and research-based content for various marital issues

• Dr. Smalley's personal journey from the National Institute of Marriage to Focus on the Family, and the impact of Focus on the Family's marriage department in helping hundreds of thousands of couples

• The importance of community and the role of "marriage champions" in every church and neighborhood in transforming marriages, even when one's own marriage is not perfect

• The takeaways for the Virtuous Leaders audience: the importance of a loving marriage, the possibility of improvement even in crisis, and the opportunity to help others

Timestamp:

00:09 - Discussing Dr. Smalley's role at Focus on the Family in helping couples honor their marriage

01:39 - Exploring the importance of being a "marriage champion" by investing in other couples

04:43 - Sharing five tips for a happy marriage, starting with learning to resolve conflict well 07:04 - Discussing the importance of resisting the natural drift in marriage by spending 10 minutes a day sharing one's inner life

10:21 - Recapping the first three tips: conflict resolution, daily sharing, and maintaining a shared spiritual relationship

11:30 - Discussing the fourth tip: making decisions as a team and reminding each other of being on the same team

14:38 - Exploring the value of Focus on the Family's marriage assessment in identifying strengths and areas for growth

17:22 - Discussing the Hope Restored program for couples in crisis and how the learnings have been applied to create biblically sound and research-based content

19:42 - Sharing Dr. Smalley's personal journey from the National Institute of Marriage to Focus on the Family

22:43 - Discussing the impact of Focus on the Family's marriage department in helping hundreds of thousands of couples

23:47 - Sharing Dr. Smalley's personal story of marital struggle and the importance of community and "marriage champions"

26:29 - Recapping the takeaways for the Virtuous Leaders audience: the importance of a loving marriage, the possibility of improvement, and the opportunity to help others

Resources and Links:

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