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.

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🔑 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?)”

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