In this episode, Matt & Jenn discuss the accomplishments of 2023 and look forward to opportunities in 2024 for Intimate Covenant. We encourage you to do the same for your marriage with a State of the Covenant conversation.
RESOURCES:
State of the Covenant - conversation guide: https://intimatecovenant.com/product/state-of-the-covenant/
State of the Covenant podcast episodes:
Episode 74 — https://www.buzzsprout.com/1253489/9821679
Episode 126 — https://www.buzzsprout.com/1253489/11931486
Sponsored by:
Open Door Financial Advisors www.opendoorfa.com
Where finances meet faith and family.
-----------------------------------------------
Please support these companies that support Intimate Covenant:
To send your comments, questions and suggestions, go to our website: www.intimatecovenant.com/podcast and click on the button: “Contact the Podcast” for an ANONYMOUS submission form. Or, send an email: podcast@intimatecovenant.com
Thanks for sharing, rating, reviewing and subscribing!
Cherishing,
Matt & Jenn
PS — If you have been blessed by the message of this podcast, we would deeply appreciate your support by donating to our mission of spreading God’s plan for intimate marriage and holy sexuality.
Join us at Patreon: www.patreon.com/intimatecovenant
Consider a one-time gift: www.intimatecovenant.com/donate
www.intimatecovenant.com
Intimate Covenant | Matt & Jenn Schmidt
In this episode, Matt & Jenn discuss the accomplishments of 2023 and look forward to opportunities in 2024 for Intimate Covenant. We encourage you to do the same for your marriage with a State of the Covenant conversation.
RESOURCES:
State of the Covenant - conversation guide: https://intimatecovenant.com/product/state-of-the-covenant/
State of the Covenant podcast episodes:
Episode 74 — https://www.buzzsprout.com/1253489/9821679
Episode 126 — https://www.buzzsprout.com/1253489/11931486
Sponsored by:
Open Door Financial Advisors www.opendoorfa.com
Where finances meet faith and family.
-----------------------------------------------
Please support these companies that support Intimate Covenant:
To send your comments, questions and suggestions, go to our website: www.intimatecovenant.com/podcast and click on the button: “Contact the Podcast” for an ANONYMOUS submission form. Or, send an email: podcast@intimatecovenant.com
Thanks for sharing, rating, reviewing and subscribing!
Cherishing,
Matt & Jenn
PS — If you have been blessed by the message of this podcast, we would deeply appreciate your support by donating to our mission of spreading God’s plan for intimate marriage and holy sexuality.
Join us at Patreon: www.patreon.com/intimatecovenant
Consider a one-time gift: www.intimatecovenant.com/donate
www.intimatecovenant.com
Intimate Covenant | Matt & Jenn Schmidt
Hey, jen, wanna talk about New Year's resolutions for your marriage.
Speaker 2:I can think of a few things that you need to take care of.
Speaker 1:Uh great. Today we're gonna discuss some ways to assess your marriage and to set some new goals for the new year. Let's do it. Welcome to the Intimate Covenant podcast, where we believe the Bible and Great Married Sex both belong on your kitchen table. That's right. We're talking about holy covenant bound intimate relationships with hot sex.
Speaker 2:We're Madden Jen, founders of Intimate Covenant. We offer biblical teaching and resources to help married couples achieve a fuller relationship and an extraordinary sex life. For more information, visit our website, IntimateCovenantcom.
Speaker 1:Welcome, friends.
Speaker 2:Welcome. Thanks for joining us for Intimate Covenant 2024 podcast.
Speaker 1:Pretty exciting New year and time to do some New Year's things.
Speaker 2:Yes, and including starting our podcast schedule off a week later than we had planned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had some technical difficulties last week and actually some just a few moments ago, but we're hopeful that things are transmitting this time. Last week we had everything recorded, everything ready to go. We were ready early, in fact.
Speaker 2:It was great. It was going to be great, and you started editing the episode while watching your dolphins lose their game.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you hit like play on the audio part of it and it sounded like the teacher from Charlie Brown.
Speaker 1:It was garbled. It was a garbled mess. I don't know what happened there.
Speaker 2:But it was 10 o'clock pm.
Speaker 1:We were out of time to record a new episode. So here we are. We delayed, postpone things one week and hopefully, as we're recording this, the same things not happening. I guess we'll find out.
Speaker 2:We're putting something out tomorrow.
Speaker 1:If you're hearing our voices, everything worked out. That's right, that's what we're hopeful.
Speaker 2:But we are finally putting out a January episode and just wanted to take a moment and kind of share some exciting things that will be in store for Intimate Covenant in 2024. Do a little bit of a look back in what 2023 held for Intimate Covenant. But before we go there, matt the biggest news, the most exciting news. Why will 2024 be an amazing year, matt?
Speaker 1:Well, we are expecting to be grandparents this year.
Speaker 2:We are being promoted to Doc and Grammy.
Speaker 1:Yes, so that's pretty exciting. We really can't really focus on much else. No, it's not exciting, it's all about that coming grandson.
Speaker 2:Yes, very Be a little boy and we are just over the moon.
Speaker 1:Yes, so coming soon, june, june, early June, I guess, is the expected dates. But we're super excited. But I did tell Jen and I'll share with you guys as well. But maybe we'll let you decide. But maybe our time as marriage and sex hodcasters might be coming to an end, because who is going to take marriage and sex advice from grandparents, from?
Speaker 2:grandparents. We are about to be grandparents. So take it. Take it what it's worth. This may be the last episode which we'll see.
Speaker 1:We'll let you decide if our message is still relevant or not, but we do, like Jen said, have some very exciting things to share, both in terms of where we've been and where we're going.
Speaker 2:We just wanted to at least take a moment to acknowledge that and to share some upcoming news with you and at the towards the later half of this episode we're going to walk through with you a tool that we use in our marriage called State of the Covenant. That will help you and your marriage to look at your past year and set some goals for your coming year. So we'll tell you a little bit more about that here in a minute.
Speaker 1:But anytime you look forward, it is essential to look back, and we did want to take a moment and just kind of look back at what this year has held for us. It was easily our busiest year in terms of what we've done with intimate covenant, both in terms of the podcast, obviously, but also traveling and other events and other things that we have done.
Speaker 2:But ironically that's not where we started in January of 2023.
Speaker 1:That's an excellent point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, january of 2023 found both of us struggling. If we're honest, truly vulnerable with our audience. We had definitely gotten some things out of line and priorities a little off kilter, and so we had a major reset personally in our marriage and really within intimate covenant. That was one of the major things that had been eating up too much of our mental, emotional, physical time, kind of in our life and so in our life.
Speaker 2:And so one of the things we did at the beginning of 2023, once we realized some things needed adjusting as we dropped the podcast down to an every other week format had been weekly up until that point and we went to every other week and, frankly, we were both pretty nervous about that because we were fearful of losing our audience. We were fearful of what that would mean.
Speaker 1:We, you're right that that was really a big step for at least me personally and, like you said, there was quite a bit of fear and anxiety and angst about doing that. But what I God just continues to amaze us and bless us, and you all continue to amaze us and bless us. What we found was that while our download numbers per episode sorry, our total download numbers may have gone down, our total downloads per episode increased by over 60%.
Speaker 2:Which is amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're putting out.
Speaker 2:Less content and yet more downloads were happening. More people are listening, more people have found out about the podcast, and that was that was like you said, matt. It was incredibly humbling to see those numbers coming in. I mean, we don't do this for the numbers.
Speaker 2:Sure but the numbers help us know. You know that, that it matters and that you know there are those that are hopefully gleaning from this. So thank you, Thank you for listening, Thank you for tuning in, Thanks for really thanks for your reviews and your ratings. You know, when you leave a review for something, I think we we all tend to think like what does it really matter whether or not I review something or not? But we're here to tell you that, being on this side of it now, we know reviews matter a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the podcast world it's just such a huge thing when you leave a review, it just says that this content is relevant to people, and so we get found by folks that might not otherwise be exposed.
Speaker 2:And we're going to tell you in a little bit later in the podcast where we got found from someone we would have never absolutely ever had the opportunity to be a part of their life.
Speaker 1:So in a very impactful way. So thank you for those of you that have done some reviews and ratings. If you haven't reviewed or rated the show in a while, we would be extremely grateful if you would do that. Your feedback on Apple or Google or Spotify or wherever it is that you listen to your podcast, wherever you can put a review and a rating, that would be just. We would just be so grateful for that. So thank you in advance for doing that. I would just share that. I mean, we talked about how exciting we were, how excited we were and are about the podcast and even in spite of dropping to an every other week episode format, I should say, according to our podcast distributor, which is called Buzzsprout, for whatever that's worth, buzzsprout tells us that our podcast is in the top 10% of all podcasts in 2023.
Speaker 2:Not just the marriage or religious or sexuality or any of the like, not just in a category. It's saying top 10% of all podcasts. That is. That blows my mind Like no.
Speaker 1:Me too. It's unbelievable that that is the case when is Matt and Jen. Just Matt and Jen. You know podcasting from our upstairs game room. Our humble abode. Yes, our non-fancy recording studio.
Speaker 2:And, incidentally, if you're on YouTube and you can see hello and you can see some of the updates that we've, yeah, we got fancy microphones in front of us now, so we look a little bit more official, but it does not feel like we're official enough to be in the top 10%. But again, that is all about you all.
Speaker 1:And we are humble. That's God's message, right.
Speaker 2:And that is God's work. That's right. So it's not about us, but it is about the power of God's message and that there are souls hungry for the knowledge of God's beautiful plan of marriage and hungry for real talk, vulnerable talk that's what we hear from you all all the time is just how much it means to you that we are here and doing this, because it is putting a voice out there that God does have a beautiful plan for marriage and for sexuality and the holiness of that. And so thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. We are immensely grateful.
Speaker 2:Matt likes to geek out on the numbers and who is listening and where they're listening from.
Speaker 1:I do enjoy that data. It is interesting.
Speaker 2:So, for those of you who are interested, matt has a list of our most popular cities.
Speaker 1:Top five most popular cities all happen to be in the United States and, starting with number five, the fifth most popular is actually a city we've never done an event in.
Speaker 2:We've never been here. We've been close. We know some people who live around this area, but not in this area, that's right.
Speaker 1:So number five is Indianapolis, Indiana.
Speaker 2:Shout out to our Indianapolis listeners.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Indianapolis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whoever you are, there's a lot of y'all listening.
Speaker 1:So let's get there.
Speaker 2:Let's make an event happen in Indianapolis 2024.
Speaker 1:We clearly have some listeners there, so that would be fun.
Speaker 2:Number four.
Speaker 1:Dallas, texas. Not surprising in the home state, so in the home state.
Speaker 2:we've done a couple of events in Dallas, Texas. So yeah, and who's the number?
Speaker 1:three. This was surprising to me, because this is literally where we are, and that's Houston Texas.
Speaker 2:It's surprising it's not number one, but then again we're not surprised because most of our friends aren't actually listening to this podcast. We think probably true. At least they're not talking to us a little bit.
Speaker 1:They're too embarrassed to turn it on. Number two is Little Old Bowling Green, Kentucky. No offense, I don't mean that in an offensive way but Little. Old Bowling Green. We did have an event there not long ago, so maybe that's part of the reason for the popularity there, but we were thrilled we're holding the number one spot back Number one.
Speaker 2:Most listeners.
Speaker 1:Actually a place.
Speaker 2:Most download happen in Tampa Florida. Tampa Florida.
Speaker 1:Tampa Florida. Thank you, we appreciate you Y'all going up. We've done a couple of events in Tampa. That's one of the many places that I grew up as a child, so have a special affinity. Thank you, tampa.
Speaker 2:So top five listening cities or we're all in the United States, but what is shocking to me is the number of countries that the Intimate Covenant podcast is listened in.
Speaker 1:This is truly remarkable. If you had just make a wild guess in your brain.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, okay, I'm gonna come up with a number.
Speaker 1:The number of countries and then be as shocked as we are that that number is 67 total countries in 2023.
Speaker 2:I would think like six or seven, not 67 countries. I didn't even know.
Speaker 1:there were 67 countries in the world, not sure.
Speaker 2:That is pretty phenomenal. So if you are one of our international listeners, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:How amazing. And that comprises every continent other than Antarctica.
Speaker 2:We need. Does anybody know, like a scientist down in Antarctica, that we could send them the podcast? How would that be to get an actual listen from Antarctica?
Speaker 1:That would be pretty crazy, but 67 total countries.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. If you're an international listener, send us an email. Just tell us where you are and where you are. And that would be cool, all right, the other thing you love looking at the numbers of is what our most popular episodes are. So the top five episodes that we created in 2023, not necessarily top five ever, because we've been doing this podcast now for I don't know how long.
Speaker 1:It's been a while.
Speaker 2:It's been a while who knew there's so many topics to talk about. I digress, Matt.
Speaker 1:Top five. Okay, are we starting with number five?
Speaker 2:Let's start with number five.
Speaker 1:So number five is episode 137, titled Asking for Orgasm.
Speaker 2:Lots of downloads on that one.
Speaker 1:Lots of downloads there. Number four is number 140, which is titled my Wife has no Sex Drive.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Also a very popular episode. Number three was actually one of our Q&A sessions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is curious to me, the Q&A session titles don't often. They don't have the shock factor that Matt likes to put into the title.
Speaker 1:Not always, but it was episode 130, which is a Q&A session including topics or discussions about sexual frequency and kids and rejection and wives and securities, so that was apparently a popular episode.
Speaker 2:A lot of people wanted to listen to that one. All right, number two.
Speaker 1:Episode 132, which was titled Am I Taking Too Long to Orgasm?
Speaker 2:We have got several in our top five that have to do with orgasm not surprising.
Speaker 1:Not surprising and number one.
Speaker 2:Number one. I am not surprised. What is the number one episode created in 2023, matt.
Speaker 1:Episode 136, titled Sex Toys.
Speaker 2:We got a lot of curious listeners out there about sex toys, so we'll just leave that at that.
Speaker 1:Yeah hopefully those episodes were helpful to you as well, but we certainly enjoy creating all of these episodes and again Me, as in you or me. Well, we'll just group that together. It's a we thing.
Speaker 2:It is a we thing. I'm here for it, matt. All right. The other exciting thing that happened in 2023 for Intimate Covenant is that we added a podcast sponsor.
Speaker 1:This has been just a tremendous blessing for us, Not only from the sponsorship standpoint in that sponsorship really goes a long way towards helping us pay the bills and expand our reach but more so that sponsorship is from our good friend Derek Finley at Open Door Financial Advisors.
Speaker 2:Yes, just getting to know Derek on a personal level and working with him, regardless of what the podcast had to do with, that has been life changing for us. Derek has been able to speak into our lives and to work with us personally. And what I love most about Derek, he's not the first financial advisor we've worked with.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But what I love most about him is that he is the first financial advisor we've worked with that has a shared faith with us.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And, as such, understands the priorities of our life. And then is offering financial advice based in that Shared faith, shared priority views.
Speaker 1:Shared values, shared everything. It's just having that common eternal perspective has made such a big difference and Derek just gets our individual unique situation and so because of that he's able to give us advice that follows along with where we want to be and what our real goals are. So it's not a cookie cutter approach, it's not a sell me all the products kind of approach. It's just been solid, expert, but down to earth, real advice, and that's made a big difference for us and we are confident that he would also be of help to you. So, as much as he's had an impact for us, I know and expect that he could have at least as big of an impact in your life in helping you plan for your financial future.
Speaker 2:Right. So let 2024 be the year that you get your feet underneath you a little bit financially. If that has been a place where you have struggled, or if you're blessed with a lot of assets already, let Derek help you better be stewards. Be better stewards of those assets, no matter where you fall. Derek is Derek's, your man.
Speaker 1:Yep, you can contact Derek. You should contact Derek.
Speaker 2:Please contact Derek.
Speaker 1:OpendoorFAcom where finances meet faith and family.
Speaker 2:All right. So the other thing and you alluded to this when we first started 2023 ended up being a year of a whole lot more traveling to marriage days and marriage weekends. Then we anticipated again in January of 2023, we were both kind of like what are we doing? Yeah, and we did a lot of realigning personally and with intimate covenant, and if you had asked me in January, I would have said that probably is gonna equal a quieter year. And then God said maybe not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, right, you all had to. Just you were ready for lots of travel, so that's where we went.
Speaker 2:But thanks to the realigning that we did, we could do that in a way that didn't didn't negatively impact us in our marriage. And so and we can kind of talk about that in a little bit how it is that we were able to maintain the balance of us but because we were able to go and do all this traveling man, we've met so many amazing people. I am just floored and humbled at the opportunity that gets put before us to meet so many of you and see the power of God working within your marriages. It is, it is just awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome to get little glimpses of the power of healthy marriages within God's kingdom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Like you said, Jen. Just so many new opportunities, new friends that we have met along the way, and this year was such a great chance to do that, so we had marriage days in Dallas, in Tampa, in the last three days, so it's five total. These last three, though, were all new cities that we had never had an event in, including Nashville, seattle and St Louis.
Speaker 2:That was amazing.
Speaker 1:So being able to travel to those places number one is just fun for us, but to be able to meet new people is really where it's at for us and we just really enjoyed that. So we do still have some openings available for 2024. We have a pretty busy year already and we'll kind of allude to that in a minute, but we certainly would be open and interested in traveling. This year Our next event is in Cedar Park where Austin, texas, in February. Yeah, we've been trying to get this to happen for a long time. It's so close but we're very excited about that event in Austin and some other things on the horizon that we'll get to. But one of the other big things, of course, the big thing for us every year, really the highlight of our year every year with intimate covenant, is the retreat.
Speaker 2:We love our retreat. We love getting to put that on. It's a lot of hard work but it's so worth it. This past year we sold out again. We had over 50 couples there, Probably my top retreat yet it was amazing. So great, and a big part of what made it so amazing was our partnership with Justin and his wife, jl Gerhard. Justin is the creator of Holy Ghost Stories, jl's his editor. I mean, the two of them together are a powerhouse.
Speaker 1:Really, really. It's an amazing podcast that he puts together and if you're not listening to the Holy Ghost Stories, you should.
Speaker 2:You need to be listening to that, but he you know his content and what he brought to the retreat just teamed up so well with our theme and where we wanted to take the retreat this past year, and so it just all went together to create a truly special, special weekend.
Speaker 1:So thankful to get part of that.
Speaker 2:Thank you to those of you that joined us. We had about half and half as far as new attendees, People had never been to a retreat before, and those returning from previous retreats. So we love that. We love getting to meet new people. We love hearing your stories of you know what it is that brought you to the retreat and your plans for returning in the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so looking forward, if you were doing it again. We are already booked with the hotel September 19 through the 21st this year and, you should probably be aware, registration will open on February 14. So that is not very far away.
Speaker 2:Not far away. Only needed to deposit to a reserve your spot. But you know, go ahead and plan to get in. What a perfect Valentine's.
Speaker 1:Day gift.
Speaker 2:Because we do expect to sell out again.
Speaker 1:I would not be surprised.
Speaker 2:Put it on your calendars, All right. The other big thing we added in 2023 was Patreon. Yes we, at the beginning of the year, started our Patreon community and we have been just overwhelmed with the number of supporters that have joined with us, partnered with us through Patreon. That has been I keep saying it, but I can't find a better word it's been humbling, it is. It has just been wonderful to have that avenue of creating that community and and and gleaning from the support that our Patreon members are sending our way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're just overwhelmed by the number of supporters who have chosen to not only take part in it with us in terms of downloads and recommending and word of mouth, and that's not to diminish that kind of contribution and partnership.
Speaker 1:But, the number of you that have determined that you wanted to make a financial contribution to this work is just been overwhelming to us, and so the generous support of Patreon has really become a primary means in how we are able to keep doing what we're doing in terms of the events, the scholarships that we're able to offer at those events, and just paying for some of the general operating expenses in in making a lot of these things happen. It's really been just tremendously overwhelming to us. So thank you, patreon. If you're not on Patreon with us yet, we would love to have you and we would certainly appreciate your support in that way.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I was going to say, while supplies last is this where you were going, supplies last. We are giving away exclusive intimate Covenant swag If you join us on Patreon. So I mean who doesn't want intimate Covenant swag. You'll be the envy of all your friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you want to see what that looks like, you're going to have to go to our Patreon page to see what is being offered. You can find us at Patreoncom. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Patreoncom slash intimate Covenant.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we alluded to this a little earlier when I was talking about the power of the podcast and it reaching people we would have never reached in any other circumstance, and that is what happened this past year. Actually, it happened a couple of years ago, but events got in the way to slow this down. And then now.
Speaker 1:Where are we going, Jen, in 2024?
Speaker 2:We are becoming international because we are going to crazy China and the United Arab Emirates. What?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's crazy and it's a very-.
Speaker 1:All the core listeners are going, excuse me, Right, it's a very long story how this happened, but in short, we can say that this is all because of the podcast, and it's just. One of the amazing things about the internet is that it's everywhere. But our host for these pair of marriage retreats is a private school for the children of expats who work abroad in China and the UAE, that is, dubai. So we'll be ministering to the married staff and to the families that are associated with this organization in those specific locations.
Speaker 2:Never, never, never, never in my life would I have dreamed of going to these locations, would I have thought this would be happening, let alone that we would be going to have marriage retreats in these two locations and we're still trying to convince Jen that this is actually going to happen.
Speaker 2:But it's gonna happen. This actually kind of got in the works before COVID. You can imagine how COVID put a halt to all of this. So here we are, three, four years later and the pieces are finally coming together to make this happen in April. Like we are in the process right now of all the visa applications and all you wouldn't imagine. But it is great. For somebody like me I am not a traveler in that way it's crazy. But thankfully this group is treating us exceptionally well. They're making it a smooth process and so we're excited.
Speaker 2:It took a little while for me to get on board to be excited, but I am now excited.
Speaker 1:She's getting on board. But we just ask the main reason we announced this today is we really just pray that, and we ask that you would pray that we would have smooth travels, that the process would be easy, and we pray that we can be positive influences in the marriages for these folks, that we're gonna be speaking with.
Speaker 2:If you're listening from one of these two locations, just know we are so excited to come meet you. We cannot wait. We're just blown away that this opportunity has been handed to us, and so yeah, matt, we're going international. Baby, we're really looking forward to this.
Speaker 1:So that's a quick look back and a brief look ahead in terms of where things have been, the busy year that 2023 was, and looking ahead at 2024. Because of that well, first of all, thank you we do want to again just reiterate how grateful we are that you've joined us. For that, and, in this theme of looking back and looking ahead, we felt like it was appropriate to encourage all of you to do the same thing for your marriage.
Speaker 2:Right, we kind of wanted to land this episode on just an encouragement to you how can you use this tool of looking back and looking forward within your marriage?
Speaker 2:New year is a natural opportunity to just look back on what you've experienced as a couple and then, perhaps most importantly, to plan for new areas of growth and deeper connection. And so this is something you and I have been passionate about over the past couple of years, and more so that we're trying to be very intentional about having what we like to have an annual or semi-annual conversation. And so we've termed this. We took what we were already using within our marriage and made it official. We gave it a name. We have termed this the state of the covenant, and it's our state of the covenant conversation. So, again, it typically happens at the first of the year, and then it works out well that our anniversary is in July, so halfway through the years, that typically is another time that we tend to have another state of the covenant type conversation, but just a time to really have a pause and be intentional and purposeful about where we are, what we've done and where we wanna go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's a good point, because I think we should make a distinction here. We've been talking in the podcast about the logistical things like where we've been and where we're going with intimate covenant. But, to be clear, that's not the kind of conversation we're talking about for the state of the covenant. It's not a logistical conversation. It's not about planning out your vacations or your financial plan for the coming year. This is a conversation to help assess where we are and what we want to do to make our connection and our marriage itself, our relationship, how to make it better.
Speaker 1:So, we created a tool to help guide that conversation and it's available on our website. If you go to intimatecovenantcom slash shop, you'll pull up the state of the covenant product and I'll put the link in the show notes. If you don't wanna even do any navigating, you just click a button, it'll take you right to it. It is for sale on the website, that conversation guide, and we're only selling it for $299.
Speaker 2:Less than $3.
Speaker 1:I don't think you can get a Starbucks anymore for $299.
Speaker 2:You cannot, and if you are a Patreon subscriber, we make it available for our Patreon subscribers.
Speaker 1:It is free. Yeah, it is free to Patreon subscribers, so that may be another motivation for you to join us on Patreon. But each of the previous two years around this time every year, we've devoted an entire episode to just talking about the state of the covenant and what it is and how to go through that process. We're not gonna do all of that detail again this year because it's already available. You can go back and check out those previous episodes, but that's either episode 74 for the original one or episode 126. Go back and look in the archives. I'll link those as well if you want the more details. Since many of you I don't know, maybe most of you have already been listening for a while. You've maybe already heard that episode. We're gonna do a very slimmed down version of that. So the highlights of how this works, right.
Speaker 2:I think right just for those of you who aren't familiar with it or need a refresher.
Speaker 2:Sure, in short, the state of the covenant is again an annual guided conversation between you and your spouse, and it's designed to help you assess the satisfaction of the level of oneness in your marriage. And what I love about it is that we broke it down into all realms of intimacy so that then you can find better ways to serve and connect with each other, moving forward. And so by realms of intimacy I mean that the, as we have put it, thinking through your spiritual intimacy, your mental intimacy, emotional intimacy and sexual intimacy, and so you can kind of do this like big picture, like well, how was our marriage in 2023? And that might be a decent conversation, but we find it's much more powerful to break it down and say what's our spiritual connection, like what's our mental connection, like. Walking through each realm of intimacy helps break it down and it helps you then better consider. You know more closely how you are and you will likely find we're doing really well in some areas and we've got lots of room for improvement in other areas.
Speaker 1:What you also might find is that you each have a different assessment of where that is.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's also an important point of conversation, why one of you may not have the same feeling about where you are, and we've created some questions to help you fully consider each of these realms.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Asking some questions that just kind of dig into how do we feel? What are we doing? What are we not doing? Those are things, and we also would encourage you to consider what are the highs and the lows? When did we feel the closest emotionally or spiritually? When did we feel the furthest apart? And that can sometimes be an important exercise to consider that.
Speaker 2:Right. Each spouse rates their assessment of the current quality of intimacy in each of these realms, using those questions that will help guide you through that, and then we encourage you to share your ratings and discuss the current state of your relationship, how you've gotten to where you are both the good and the bad and then, based on your spouse's feedback, then we encourage you to take that next step, the important step of setting personal and couple goals for your coming year, and within that, we would encourage you to even set a very specific date for when you're going to reassess the progress that you have made.
Speaker 2:I think that is key and that's been a part when we have used this and had years where we've really seen a lot of progress in our marriage and success with this tool. It's been because we have that reassessment meeting and we hold each other accountable to what we said we wanted to be working on individually.
Speaker 1:We don't just have this conversation again in a year or even in six months, but we're setting up some regular dates to hold each other accountable. What have I done to move towards the goal that we set out to have? So that's an important step as well. So, again, all of this is detailed in these other episodes in much greater detail, much greater length, and the specific ways that we walk through this process. So, again, if you're not familiar with the process or you've never done it before, we encourage you to look up those episodes, download the form, the conversation guide, and get this done.
Speaker 2:So, in summary, we encourage you to have the state of the covenant conversation, Assess all areas of intimacy in your marriage, set those specific goals for improving each realm of intimacy and then, most importantly, set a date to reassess your progress and hold one another accountable.
Speaker 1:There you go, three simple steps.
Speaker 2:There you go. All right, Matt, give us our wrap up.
Speaker 1:For real progress in your marriage, it's important to critically evaluate the past and to set goals for the future. A thorough evaluation of your marriage should include assessment of each realm of intimacy spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. And finally, please help support Intimate Covenant by sharing and rating the podcast. We would be especially grateful if you would join us on Patreon.
Speaker 2:Now it's time to grab your spouse and your Bible and head to your kitchen table to have the conversation about the state of your covenant. How would you assess your marriage relationship and what are your goals for the coming year?
Speaker 1:We would love to hear your feedback about this episode and others. Certainly, we would appreciate your questions. Contact us by emailing podcast at intimatecovenantcom or you can go to our website to submit an anonymous feedback form. Intimatecovenantcom slash podcast. Thanks again to Open Door and to Derek Finley for sponsoring the podcast. Contact Open Door financial advisors at OpenDoorFAcom, where finances meet faith and family.
Speaker 2:Thanks to all of you for listening, subscribing, rating and sharing the podcast in 2023. We're truly humbled by all of your encouragement and your support. We look forward to 2024 with you. Thanks especially to our Patreon subscribers for coming alongside us in that very real way. We love you. If you would like to join Intimate Covenant by supporting the podcast and our greater mission to share God's plan for intimate marriage and holy sexuality, subscribe at patreoncom slash intimatecovenant Until next time.
Speaker 1:keep striving and don't settle.