Why do women say they feel unseen and unheard while men quietly wonder why sex feels distant and disconnected? In this episode, Brad Rhoads sits down with researchers and authors Jeff and Shaunti Feldhahn to unpack the two most common complaints in marriage: “We don’t communicate” and “We’re not intimate enough.”

They reveal surprising research about how women are constantly asking, “Do you still love me?,” and how men are silently wondering, “Do you still want me?” You’ll hear real stories, from skipped conversations after important meetings to choosing connection over a $2,500 roofing mistake, plus the science behind desire and why most couples misunderstand each other.

This conversation is honest, practical, and might just change the way you pursue the person you married (emotionally and physically).

Stay to the end for simple next steps you can try this week.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more couples discover the hope of a grace-filled marriage.

Jeff & Shaunti Feldhahn – Research, books, blog, and podcast: https://shaunti.com

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• Why women crave connection through conversation and men crave connection through sex
• The hidden question most wives ask daily: “Do you still love me?”
• The silent fear many husbands carry: “Am I still desirable to you?”
• How communication and intimacy fuel each other instead of competing
• Initiating vs. receptive desire — and why most couples don’t understand this difference
• Why couples drift into sexless patterns and how to reverse it
• How pursuit often comes before desire but leads to deeper intimacy

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What if the one skill that could transform your marriage, your friendships, and even your politics isn’t communication—it’s curiosity?

In this episode, Brad Rhoads sits down with author Drew Worsham, whose new book The Magic of Curiosity explores how asking better questions can heal division and deepen connection. Together, they unpack how curiosity builds bridges in a polarized world and restores understanding between spouses who feel miles apart.

From real-life stories about beauty vs. budget, parenting styles, and a $2,500 roof decision, this conversation shows how curiosity fuels wisdom and wisdom fuels grace. Whether you’re fighting about finances or frustrated by your spouse’s perspective, this episode will help you stop arguing and start understanding.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more couples discover the hope of a grace-filled marriage.

• The Magic of Curiosity by Drew – https://a.co/d/cYFCw80
• Grace Marriage – https://gracemarriage.com

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• How curiosity can stop conflict before it starts
• The $2,500 “roof story” that transformed frustration into unity
• Why curiosity—not compromise—is the secret to deeper connection
• How curiosity changes parenting, politics, and partnership
• The 15-Minute Curiosity Session that can instantly improve communication
• How understanding your spouse’s why fuels grace in marriage

KEY VERSES:
📖 1 Peter 3:7 – “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”
📖  John 10:10 – Proverbs 18:2 – “Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.”



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✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
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What if the biggest danger to your marriage isn’t conflict...but distraction?
In this powerful conversation, Brad Rhoads sits down with longtime ministry leader Rick Howerton to uncover the real reasons so many marriages drift apart and how both couples and churches can reverse the trend.

Rick draws from 50 years in ministry to share why marriage doesn’t come naturally, how busyness and misplaced priorities destroy connection, and why the word divorce should never leave your lips. They also tackle a hard truth: the modern church often builds entire ministries around children and youth while neglecting the foundation that holds it all together—marriage.

If you’ve ever struggled to balance faith, family, and calling, this episode will challenge your assumptions and give you a fresh, hopeful vision for your home and your church.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more couples discover the hope of a grace-filled marriage.

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
•  Why marriage doesn’t come naturally—and how to fight for it intentionally
• The danger of letting “good” things like ministry or work replace your spouse
• How to establish a “no divorce” mindset that strengthens your covenant
• Why churches must make marriage central—not secondary—to their mission
• How misplaced priorities in church life mirror misplaced priorities at home
• Practical steps for pastors and couples to build a marriage-centered culture

KEY VERSES:
📖 Ephesians 5:25  – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
📖  John 10:10 – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING?? 
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
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What if your spouse carries hidden fears you’ve never even noticed (and have been bumping into them without realizing it)? In this powerful conversation, Brad Rhoads sits down with bestselling authors and researchers Jeff and Shaunti Feldhahn (For Women Only, For Men Only) to uncover surprising truths about the inner lives of men and women.

You’ll hear how their journey from law and Wall Street into marriage research began, why generalizations about men and women still matter, and how simple shifts in how you phrase a question can radically change connection and intimacy. This episode offers practical insights that will open your eyes to unseen struggles in your spouse and equip you to love with deeper grace.

Don’t miss this one—it could be the breakthrough your marriage needs.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more couples discover the hope of a grace-filled marriage.

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• Why many men secretly struggle with self-doubt despite appearing confident
• The core insecurity most women carry in marriage—and how husbands can respond with love
• How small changes in phrasing can avoid hitting your spouse’s “raw nerve”
• Why happy couples learn to stop letting bad moods dominate the home
• The difference between perception and judgment in communication
• How grace-filled responses prevent defensiveness and deepen intimacy

KEY VERSES:
📖 2 Timothy 1:7 – “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
📖  Genesis 4:7 – “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

• Shaunti Feldhahn Website – https://shaunti.com
• For Women Only and For Men Only books – Available at shaunti.com
• Podcast: I Wish You Could Hear This – https://shaunti.com/podcast

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING?? 
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
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What if the health of your marriage came down to one overlooked skill?

In this conversation, Brad Rhoads sits down with Drew Worsham, author of The Magic of Curiosity, to unpack how intentional curiosity can transform your relationship. They discuss why busyness kills intimacy, how to move past surface-level conversations, and the power of simply asking better questions.

Whether your marriage feels fragile or strong, this episode will challenge you to see your spouse with fresh eyes. Stay tuned until the end for practical ways to create space for deeper connection.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more couples discover the hope of a grace-filled marriage.

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• Why curiosity is essential for true love and connection in marriage
• How hurry and busyness shut down curiosity between spouses
• The danger of only talking logistics—and how longer blocks of time unlock the heart
• Practical tips for asking questions that go deeper without feeling forced
• Using curiosity to resolve conflict and create emotional safety in your marriage

KEY VERSES:
📖 Luke 6:45 – “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING?? 
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
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What do you do when the feelings fade—or when ministry, stress, or seasons of hardship threaten to pull your marriage apart?

In this episode of the Grace Marriage Podcast, Brad Rhoads sits down with Rick Howerton, longtime pastor, consultant, and marriage champion, for a very honest conversation. Rick shares lessons from 48 years of marriage (even times when the seasons when love felt absent). From learning to offer grace instead of judgment, to refusing to use the “D-word,” to balancing marriage with ministry, Rick’s story will encourage and challenge you to stay in the fight for your relationship.

Whether you’re newly married, decades in, or leading others, this episode reminds us: marriage is a marathon, not a sprint...and grace makes it possible to keep running.

👉 Don’t miss future episodes. Subscribe, leave a review, and visit gracemarriage.com to invest in your marriage today.

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• Why lasting marriages require patience, grace, and forgiveness
• What to do when you don’t “feel in love” anymore
• Why saying “divorce” should never be an option in marriage
• How ministry can become a rival to marriage—and what to do about it
• The difference between enabling bad behavior and offering true grace
• Why intentional investment—not autopilot—sustains marriage for the long run

KEY VERSES:
📖 Proverbs 27:6 – “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”
📖  Ephesians 5:25 – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
📖 1 Timothy 3:4–5 – “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)”

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING?? 
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
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What do you do when fear dominates your mind, stress piles up, and apathy creeps in?

In this powerful conversation, Brad Rhoads opens up about a difficult season marked by health scares, family stress, and anxiety, and invites therapist and pastor Nathan Thompson to walk him through it in real time. Together they explore how fear compounds on itself, why judging your emotions makes things worse, and how grace (not performance) becomes the lifeline in the middle of it all.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in worry or weighed down by apathy, this honest episode will remind you: you don’t have to fix yourself. God’s love is enough, even in the middle of your struggle.

👉 Subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and visit gracemarriage.com to learn more.

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• Why judging your own anxiety makes it worse
• How grace frees us from performance-based living
• The role of lament and the Psalms in emotional health
• Apathy as a defense mechanism—and how grace breaks through it
• Practical ways to let God’s love (and others’ care) carry you through stress
• Why confession and reconciliation restore connection in marriage

KEY VERSES:
📖  1 John 4:18 – “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
📖  Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
📖 Psalm 55:22 – “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”
📖 Matthew 11:28–30 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING?? 
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
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Is perfectionism secretly sabotaging your relationship?

In this episode, Brad Rhoads sits down with therapist and pastor Nathan Thompson from Southeast Christian Church to uncover how performance-driven living spills into marriage, fueling criticism, defensiveness, and stress. 

Together, they explore why grace is the antidote and what it really means to live in Jesus’ easy yoke. You’ll walk away with fresh hope, practical tools, and a new vision for grace-filled love.

👉 Subscribe, share this episode with a friend, leave a review, and visit gracemarriage.com to grow deeper in your own marriage.

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• How perfectionism in yourself leads to nitpicking your spouse
• Breaking free from Gottman’s “Four Horsemen” of marital breakdown
• The freedom of “You’re not okay—and it’s okay”
• Why grace, not guilt, is the key to real change in marriage
• How grace lowers stress when life feels overwhelming
• Shifting from self-effort to resting in God’s care

KEY VERSES:
📖  Matthew 11:28–30 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
📖  Hebrews 4:9–10 – “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”
📖  Galatians 6:2 – “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
📖  Galatians 5:22–23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING?? 
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

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What if just six seconds a day could change your marriage?

In this episode of the Grace Marriage Podcast, Brad Rhoads sits down with John McGee of Watermark Church, a national leader in marriage ministry and founder of re|engage. Together, they share practical wisdom on building healthy rhythms, convincing churches to prioritize marriage ministry, and why intentional time (not just an elaborate date night) is the real game changer.

From the power of a six-second kiss, to weekly connection blocks, to finding couples worth emulating, Brad and John unpack both big and small ways to strengthen your relationship and protect it from neglect. If you’ve ever felt too busy, too tired, or too stretched, this conversation will remind you that small, consistent investments create the biggest long-term returns.

👉 Subscribe, leave a review, and learn more about Grace Marriage at gracemarriage.com.

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• Why intentional time together is the “401k” of marriage
• How to bring marriage ministry into your church (without frustrating your pastor)
• The six-second kiss and ten-second hug: small habits with big impact
• Why you should seek out couples with marriages worth emulating
• The difference between real connection and Instagram-worthy date nights
• How to build daily, weekly, and lifelong rhythms of connection

KEY VERSES:
📖  Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
📖  Joshua 24:15 – “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING?? 
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

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What happens when you stop keeping score in marriage?

In this episode of the Grace Marriage Podcast, Brad and Marilyn Rhoads share how their own marriage was transformed when they discovered the power of shifting from performance...to grace. They explain the difference between law-based and grace-based relationships, how grace changes the atmosphere of a home, and why forgiveness creates steadiness instead of roller-coaster ups and downs.

With honesty and practical wisdom, Brad and Marilyn unpack how to extend grace when your spouse hurts you, how to deal with ongoing issues without enabling, and why grace motivates more than guilt. If your marriage feels heavy, this conversation will give you hope, freedom, and a new way forward.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and learn more at gracemarriage.com.

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• The difference between a law-based marriage and a grace-based marriage
• Why keeping score kills intimacy and connection
• How grace steadies relationships and makes reconciliation possible
• What extending grace looks like in daily life (and what it’s not)
• Why selflessness—not self-focus—leads to joy in marriage
• How grace transforms not only marriage, but parenting and home atmosphere

KEY VERSES:
📖  Romans 6:14 – “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
📖  Romans 5:8 – “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
📖  Galatians 5:1 – “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
📖  Romans 2:4  – “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”
📖  1 John 4:19  – “We love because he first loved us.”


LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING?? 
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
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