Stronger Marriage Connection
It's often said that marriage takes work. The Stronger Marriage Connection podcast wants to help because a happy marriage is worth the effort. USU Family Life Professor Dr. Dave Schramm and Clinical Psychologist Dr. Liz Hale talk with experts about the principles and practices that will enhance your commitment, compassion, and emotional connection.
More than ever before, marriages face obstacles, from the busyness of work and daily hassles to disagreements and digital distractions. It's no wonder couples sometimes drift apart, growing resentful, lonely, and isolated.
The Utah Marriage Commission invites you to listen and discover new ways to strengthen and protect your marriage connection today!
Stronger Marriage Connection
Four Keys to a Happier Marriage | Dr. Jeffery Dew | #141
Dr. Jeffrey Du shares groundbreaking research identifying four key factors for a stronger marriage: commitment, protectiveness, shared religious attendance, and regular date nights. These factors emerged from data collected from over 2,000 individuals across the United States, focusing specifically on elements within couples' control.
• Commitment means intentionally prioritizing your spouse and marriage amid busy lives
• Protectiveness involves emotional safeguarding, loyalty, and consistently having your spouse's back
• Shared religious attendance creates deeper connection through joint spiritual experiences
• Regular date nights (at least twice monthly) significantly boost marital happiness
• Shared financial decision-making and joint bank accounts correlate with higher marital satisfaction
• Small, daily actions matter more for relationship health than occasional grand gestures
• Marriage requires intentionality – like a plant needing daily sunshine and regular water
• Premarital education provides couples with important foundations for success
For more information, visit the Institute for Family Studies website or contact Dr. Jeffrey Du directly at jeff_du@byu.edu.
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Dr. Dave Schramm:
Dr. Liz Hale:
On today's episode. Dr Liz and I welcome Dr Jeffrey Du to the show. Based on a recent research report, he shares four keys for a stronger marriage. Connection With years of expertise in family finances, jeff also shares some helpful research-based tips to help couples manage their money. Dr Jeffrey Du is a professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. He received a dual-titled PhD in HDFS and Demography from the Pennsylvania State University. He taught for seven years at Utah State University and is in his ninth year of teaching at BYU. Dr Dew's research focuses on how everyday matters such as financial issues impact marriage.
Speaker 1:We hope you enjoy the show. Hey there, friends. Welcome to another episode of the Stronger Marriage Connection podcast. I'm Dr Dave here at Utah State University Extension, alongside Dr Liz Hale, our psychologist and therapist. We're really on a mission to bring you the best we have in research and resources, along with a few tips and tools to help you create the marriage of your dreams. All right, our guest today is a friend and colleague who actually worked here at USU for a few years before making the switch down to Brigham Young University. He is well known for his great work related to money and marriage, but recently he and some colleagues conducted some research that looked at four ways to create a stronger marriage. So here to discuss those keys and more is dr Jeff, do welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks, dave, thanks.
Speaker 2:Liz, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, lovely having you we're excited for our discussion today. Jeff, can you set up our discussion today by telling us about the a little bit about the recent research project and what you're hoping to discover, and why? Yeah?
Speaker 3:So, you know, we had data from over 2000 individuals across the United States and one of the things that we were interested in was, you know, to look at those things that you know pretty much anyone can do right, the things that are under our control, because there's so much that is not under our control but what are the things that are under our control that are really the top helps in creating a happier and a more stable, more stable marriage, and so that's what we were hoping to achieve.
Speaker 1:Good yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:And so there are four factors here. I understand. In your marital happiness evaluation, your research identifies commitment, protectiveness, shared religious attendance and regular date nights. Okay, let's start with commitment. I mean, we just all have busy lives, juggling multiple responsibilities. Sometimes it feels like marriage our key relationship, gets pushed to the back burner. So how can we husbands and wives ensure that relationships remain more important than almost anything else, as your research suggests that it should be?
Speaker 3:it should be, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think it's such a good question because I think that we do get busy and we're putting out fires and we're reaching our next goals in our careers and all that kind of stuff, and so I think the big takeaway, or the big idea for me from this research is to make sure that you're being intentional about doing things with your spouse, helping your spouse.
Speaker 3:We often talk about this idea of strengthening our marriage and, you know, and for therapists, this idea of marriage kind of being a little bit separate and apart from the couples, or something that is bigger than the parts of the whole, a little bit separate and apart from the couples, or or something that is bigger than the parts of the of the whole. I think if we turn toward each other and look at each other as spouses and kind of just do those small things every day, you know a little bit of affection, you know a little bit of of connection and you know, just by saying I am going to do this for my spouse, you know, today, I think that that's what commitment is is to put the marriage admittedly, there's so much, so much we have to do, but to make sure that your marriage is in that list somewhere near the top, and doing something for your spouse that they'll appreciate is somewhere near the top. I think that's really important.
Speaker 1:This idea of intentionality when it comes to commitment and letting them and I guess others know right, jeff, that we're committed to each other. Now, protectiveness the report highlights how important it is to have a protective spouse as well. That can be sometimes a confusing term. Tell us a little bit more about what you mean exactly, jeff, with protectiveness.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we asked couples to rate their spouse on 10 different attributes, and protectiveness was one of them, and it was just that one word, and we didn't ask anything else about it, and so we were surprised to see that come out above other things, and so we don't really know what it means. The fact that it boosts both husband's marriage and wife's marriage about the same amount actually leads us to believe that this is not physical protection, right, this is not. The wolves are attacking the village and the man goes out to beat the wolves. That's not what we're talking about. I think we're talking about loyalty. We don't know, but I'm thinking we're talking about loyalty. I'm thinking we're talking about protecting each other's feelings, protecting each other in, you know, social situations where you stick up for your spouse, and things like that, and so I think I think that's really the what we're looking at, really the what we're looking at, and that seems to resonate even with some of the research that I've done on the that were born with these three needs of safety, satisfaction and connection.
Speaker 1:It feels like it is this, this emotional again, I don't think it's the you know, food, clothing, shelter, type of safety. It's more of this emotional feeling. I can, I can, I can risk that, I am like I can risk that I am seen, that I am known, that you get me this, this intimacy that means into me. You see, right, it's this um, we have something that we need to protect and that we don't. I don't make fun of you, you know, when we're out joking with our friends or that type of protagonist, so it is maybe a little bit uh difficult to to really understand why people chose that one, but I think it is. It's's an interesting one that I'm a little bit surprised as well, but maybe it's some of that. Liz, what are your thoughts when you think of protectionism.
Speaker 2:I love this whole thought, right For sure. I mean, nothing feels better than to know that that one person in the whole world has your back. There is just that protective coating, no matter what, what I've got, that one person who's standing for me, even if I'm wrong, right, even if whatever is my fault, they're still still by my side, around my back. You know for, for a woman, what are some specific ways we can communicate that need for protection of our husband? And and then how can we in turn show protective behaviors towards him? I would love to know, please, jeff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this is a hard one because, again, we don't know exactly what it means. But I like what you said, liz, about always having someone's back, especially, or even you're wrong, and so you know. So I think what one of the ways that that you can communicate that is if something happens, bring it up, talk about it, right. So if your spouse kind of goes low on the protection, then afterward, hey, I would have appreciated it if you had done it this way. You know which you know. You already have to have good communication, a good relationship, to do that anyway. But you know, communicating your joke, um, or or or even uh, makes a remark that is a little bit at your expense, um, you know, just telling them later. You know you may have thought this was funny or or whatever, um, but when we're out together I really need you to, um, you know, build me up in the eyes of whoever you know, your colleagues or whatever, um some of her friends and, um, his wife told about the situation where, um, she had been totally wrong.
Speaker 3:And her friend said, oh, and I'll bet your husband just said you know, oh, I told you so. And one of her other friends who knew the husband said, oh, no, he's not like that, he, you know he'll, he'll just he'll, he'll just let it go, it go. He won't, he won't, he won't even bring it up, you know. And so I think it's just this desire to be loyal, this desire to really put your spouse, you know, step in front of your spouse so they don't have to take, you know, some of the, some of the blame, or even if they're having a hard time and you know, say they're having a problem with a colleague at work, really supporting them and even if you think they're totally wrong about a social situation, you know, just, yeah, that is, you know, your supervisor is just so wrong, you know, and things like that Maybe don't goad them into, you know, telling off their boss or anything like that, but yeah, just really supporting them, being loyal to them showing them that you're on the same team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, on the same team. I like that. Now I have another follow up question with this, jeff. What are your thoughts on even the protectiveness from children? Let's say, you know children are being very disrespectful, or teenagers, you know, or we're going off, or you know to help us, help us understand what might protection look like in those types of family situations?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I think you know, I think it's just really important to always be presenting a united front as far as what mom and dad think you know, and as far as what mom and dad want and what the rules are and so forth, and as far as what mom and dad want and what the rules are, and so forth, which means that mom and dad need to be communicating with each other about family rules and about parenting before you know this situation comes up, so that, so that then they can present a united front because they've talked about it before. So again, I think part of it's just intentionality, right?
Speaker 1:The parents talk to each other about what we're going to do and and things yeah, and even in other situations, you know, with in-laws or, or you know, family parties or get-togethers or thanksgiving or whatever it is just knowing that protection, like it doesn't need to be this confrontational blow-up or anything right, but to really know that, hey, I have your. You know, talking that way to her or him is is is unacceptable, and being there, having someone almost stand up for you in a way when there's situations are tense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know, I think, um, I think that is, uh, especially important to communicate to um, your, your children, that, hey, you know, please don't talk about your mother or please don't talk about your father that way, um, you know, and, and give them reasons that are personal. You know, I love him, I love her, you know, and, um, I don't like it when people are disrespect my, you know, disrespect my spouse. So, you know, even my kids, right, and that was actually one of the things you know, if, if, we wanted to make our dad mad, the easiest way was to talk back to my mom, and so, you know, I thought that was, that was always an interesting example to me, yeah, a great example.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jeff, another one of these the the in your research report importance of, you know, these day nights of spending time meaningful. Another one of these in your research report the importance of these date nights of spending time of meaningful what we call, in the name of our podcast, stronger Marriage Connection, doing those things to keep your connection strong. I think, though, today correct me if I'm wrong, jeff that many couples today really struggle to find a consistent date night right Scheduled with childcare, or we got soccer games or practices or meetings, and or finances can afford it or simply just exhausted and you know what, let's stay home tonight. It's just easier not to do anything intentional to strengthen our relationship. Do you have, I'm curious, do you have creative, low cost date night ideas that don't require, sometimes don't require, leaving home? Even that your research show are valuable?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so. So I don't have much research on that, but I have thought about it and looked at what other people say. One of the things that was really intriguing to me was reading a book together. Pick a book you know and read it together, switch off on chapters or pages or whatever. I thought that was really interesting.
Speaker 3:If you have a joint hobby that can be done at home, invest in that. If you don't pick one right that you can do together at home and you know one of the other ones that it's not quite done at home, but just even the walks you know the walks and the talks that you take are so just relationally healthy and physically healthy too Right when it comes to walks. The other thing that I thought was was kind of fun was one was have your own in-home movie theater, right. So you get the kids in bed and then you pop popcorn and you lay out some candy and you pretend that you're actually at the theater and watch a movie. So it's not just you know, click there, it is, you know, but actually kind of spice it up and make it a little bit more fun.
Speaker 1:I love that, yeah, and I love you spoke. One that we often do is just go for a walk. So, especially now that weather's a little bit better, at least here in Utah, go or walk. We should just go for a walk, especially now the weather's a little bit better, at least here in Utah We'll go walk around and just chat Good for our hearts, good for our heads, and we could just, yeah, chat with each other. Love it. We'll be right back after this brief message and we're back.
Speaker 2:Let's dive right in for those who do attend religious services with their spouses, so they go together, what are some practical ways they can extend that same experience into home life to further strengthen their marriage? What, jeff, what do you think?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think, really, whatever religious tradition that you are part of, and having gone together with your spouse and that's the thing that we found or was important in our research it wasn't just religious attendance, it was attending with your spouse, I think, to bring that home right, if you want to even just say, you go to religious worship service and you just ask or you talk about the sermon that you heard, right, or you, you know, just talk about some of these other spiritual matters again, just make it intentional.
Speaker 3:And then, of course, there's reading holy texts together and there's worship or prayer that can be done together, and even song and music that you can do with your spouse and or with your kids, and just really bring that religious experience into the home. And a lot of times scientists will split it out. They've got the public behaviors, the public religious behaviors, and you've got the private religious behaviors, and those private religious behaviors can be really important in terms of boosting your quality of life and your marriage as well. So just you know, doing those things that will help you experience your relationship with the divine together.
Speaker 2:So again, these four factors. I really love these four. Marital happiness we've got commitment, protectiveness, shared religious attendance and regular date nights. Those sound really powerful. Is that research you've done with a collective group, jeff?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I did it with some of the researchers from Wheatley Institution here at BYU and the National Marriage Project out at the University of Virginia, and again we were just interested in finding these things that really can be under our control, you know, and can enhance relationships. And we had, we threw a whole bunch of variables you know, I'm not going to go into the statistics much, but we had 10 or 11 or 12 in there and we were looking for the top four, and those top four seem to be pretty simple and pretty manageable and things that are really under our control. But again, it takes that intentionality. It takes putting marriage up into your priority list, high up into your priority list, and then keep it there and keep focusing, week after week, day after day.
Speaker 2:What was the regular date night? Just frequency. What was that? Was that monthly? Was it every other month?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was multiple times a month. So two or more times a month, no kidding.
Speaker 2:Two or more times a month. Wonderful Frequency was a big part of that. We talk about frequency in some other domain, not frequency and date night, as much I like that. It kind of goes back to commitment too, doesn't it? I think they go hand in hand. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jeff, I can't interview you without bringing up finances again. That may not have been in the in the top four. Yeah, I know with all your background and experience in finances, I mean it goes along with date nights and some of these other things that do cost money and it's one of the top, if I'm not mistaken, areas of conflict for a lot of couples. Do you have any kind of go-to finance tips for our listeners today?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. Number one, that financial power in marriage, the financial decision making it needs to be absolutely shared, right? You can't have one partner kind of dominating over the other in the financial area. It just doesn't work and then to kind of go along with that. One of the ways to achieve that is making sure that both spouses have equal voice when it comes to making their budget or their spending plan, because as they do that, then they will have to compromise, they'll have to get on the same page, and so it will be work together. But then once they get this joint budget that they both approve of, they both like then they're both, they have more stake in it, right? They're both more likely to follow it. And so I think those two things are key just make sure that the power is shared. And then making sure that both spouses are participating in the budgeting. It doesn't matter if one or both are tracking the spending and things like that, but when it comes to the plan for spending right before the fact, both spouses need to be involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love those and I'm going to this is almost a selfish ask here, jeff with a daughter who's getting married this coming Saturday, another daughter who's been the first couple of years of her marriage. When it comes to finances or any of these other areas that we've been talking about, any tips for those who are just beginning, you know, the first, let's say, married five years or less.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay. So it's important to realize that you're both coming from different cultures, right? Each family that you grew up in are different cultures. Honestly, they're just little microcultures, and so you're coming together, and when you're talking about money, you're talking about things that are going to be deeply personal but that people don't think very much about. You know, on our conscious level, we just always do it this way in our family when it comes to money, just because that's what we always do, right? And so I think couples who are about to be married or who are recently married, I think they actually need to explore together and talk about how money was treated in their family of origin, the importance of it, what their parents thought money was best spent on, because that can vary widely right, in terms of what money is best used for. And do it in a non-judgmental way. Right, because there are many, many ways to do finances, right. And so, just to you know you're coming from these two cultures. Get together, talk about your two cultures, but now you're joining together and you're making your own culture, and so you know you want to.
Speaker 3:You want to make sure that you're on the same page, essentially, and the other thing, too, is to join your bank accounts. You know that's been talked about before and people have always. You know that's been talked about before and people have always. You know there's been research and the research has always always shown that people who join their financial accounts are happier. But we've never known.
Speaker 3:Is it the happier people join their accounts right Because you would expect that, because they trust their spouse more and things like that, or is it the actual joining that makes them happier? And someone actually was able to do a randomized control group experimental design, and they took a whole bunch of newlyweds who agreed to do this and randomly put the newlyweds in either the group that was going to join their finances or the group that wasn't. And then they followed those groups over time and what they found was that over time the couples that had joined their finances were happier than the couples that had not. And so we actually get some fairly causal evidence that joining your finances after you get married not before, right, but after you get married, I think can also enhance marital trust, right? Marital transparency. It can keep you from engaging in, you know, financial temptations without telling your spouse. You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah. Wise words, yeah, a lot of wisdom there. Thanks, jeff.
Speaker 2:There's probably more where that came from right. I mean, just in honor of Mallory and Dave getting married on Saturday. Dr Ju, what else do you advise for these beautiful new couples that are starting off on the right foot? So we've talked about finances, talking about commitment, how to put each other first, the protectiveness what about? What other things? Gosh in-laws come to mind, sexual connection, any other thoughts? Can we pick your brain?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, and honestly, liz, you know you're a therapist and Dave you're, you know you do a whole lot of practical research in your I almost said 4-H but in your extension work.
Speaker 3:So I think a lot of things that can be handled before the marriage, to the extent that they can be handled, I think they should be like talking about money, like talking about expectations when it comes to the in-laws. You know, and I think actually we can, we can weave in protectiveness here, right, you just to each other. You know when, when I'm at your in-laws place, I need you to stick up for me, and when we're yours, I will stick up for you and just make sure that you're keeping your marriage in front of. You know, necessarily, your relationship with your parents or whatever, it's your marriage that matters most. So so I think I don't, I don't know I think marriage, premarital education I think is is really important because they'll go over some of the things that maybe people don't even think about before they get married, and I just think that's a terrific idea. And you know, when couples do premarital education together, then they, you know, then they have just such, a, such an advantage. I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well said, and I wish I wish more young couples did take advantage of it. You know, I've certainly seen my share through the years and I'm just always so excited when someone realizes gosh, we want to do this right. And yet I also think it's probably never too late, right?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, dr Du, tell us where can our listeners go, please. Or maybe I'm jumping ahead, dave, forgive me, I am.
Speaker 1:No, go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I can share the link to our report. It is on the Institute for Family Studies web page and it's one of the main. It's one of the main reports they've done recently. So I will send the specific link link to you that you can share with your listeners and then they can. You know, maybe you can even put the link with the podcast, just so they can find the report.
Speaker 2:But I'd love to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we'll put that in our show notes, jeff. Any other ways of getting in and touch with your reports? I guess we could put your Google scholar link in there. People are interested in any of the other research. We'll be sure to put that in as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but certainly my email. You know certainly my email address, jeff underscore. Do at byuedu. I'm always interested in, you know, getting emails from whomever.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yeah, thank you. Hey, jeff, it's tradition as we wrap things up to ask a couple of questions to all of our guests, the first one being what do you feel like is the key or a key to a stronger marriage connection?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can't emphasize enough how making the marriage not just about the relationship itself, but also focusing on your spouse and accepting them for who they are and doing things with them, spending time with them, showing them affection right, we all need to belong, as Dave said, and to just do those little things. My metaphor for marriage is a plant, and you know it just needs daily sun, it needs some water regularly, and I think marriages just need that. Right, it's not enough to go on a romantic cruise once a year, although that would be great, right, it's the little things, it's the reconnection, it's putting your spouse, you know, in the top three or four or five of your, you know, of your priorities, five of your priorities. It's just, I think, so important to show hey, I'm here for you, I love you, I want to connect with you, I want to invest in our relationship and I think when both spouses do that, I just think you have such an incredible relationship.
Speaker 3:Well said, my friend, and this may be similar, but it may be different as far as we call it a takeaway of the day. Is there a take home message from the research or otherwise that you hope our listeners will remember from our discussion today? To our relationships, there are things that we can do Even if we've had no psychological training or anything like that. There are some small everyday things that we can do that will build our relationships, and so I think that's nice that we can do this right. We can make good relationships happen, focusing on our spouse, things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wonderful. Thanks, liz. What about you? What's your takeaway of the day?
Speaker 2:I just so appreciate researchers like Dr Du and this group who are continually staying up on research. I just think that's really lovely, and I think this might be the very first time that I have heard regarding regular date night or dating, that it is two or more per month. It's really quite something and it certainly falls in line with the other principles Well, commitment, mainly commitment, as well as protectiveness. That makes a lot of sense, and maybe that religious attendance also. Maybe there's a little bit of dating in there too, who knows? But two or more, that really struck me today. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And, frankly, if you can't do two or more, strive for one or you know, strive for one or more a month. You know because and it again, I like well, when I teach our students about retirement, I teach financial, financial essentials here at BYU, and they do the calculations and they see this number that's always in the millions and some of them are just like oh, I can two or more times a month. Well, there's no way I can handle that Great. Can you do one a month or one every six weeks? Some is better than none, right, I guess?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think maybe it's possible to underestimate that. Oh, it's like well, I guess we kind of had a date yesterday or Saturday. It was unplanned, but we ended up going to the drive-thru and that was kind of cool. We're going to call that a sweet day. Yeah, come on. Yeah, absolutely. We just need to look more clearly too. What about you, dave? What's the rich nugget that you hope we can all remember together from our time with Dr Jeff Dew?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, jeff, I hadn't thought about protectiveness. That one still is kind of ringing in my ears as far and what that might mean. And I thought about what that might mean is the emotional protectiveness, or with your kids and their respect, or in-laws, or just with friends, just this whole idea of this protection. I'm going to protect our relationship to me and like I'm gonna make my spouse, my wife, a priority in my life and not let other things um hurt or harm or come you know, um I guess impede kind of on us and and in particular her, that I'll be there for her and stand up for her and uh, we're on the same, we're on the same team, we're in this, this together. So I thought so I thought that was that was interesting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and, and you know I mean it, it, it, even. Every couple is going to have fights, every couple is going to have disagreements, Right, and and and the thing is just to come back together and keep nurturing the relationship, even though you've had a fight, you know, even if it didn't get resolved. Right. I know from the research that money fights, for example, take a while to resolve months if not years. And so, hey, yeah, you fight, you disagree, you're not happy with them, you don't like them, even necessarily at that particular point. But just just get back together and keep nurturing and doing the small things and and just really trying to advance the welfare of your spouse, really help them out, throw them that you're there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, thanks, jeff. I might close with a little. That's just inspired a little example story, so indulge me for a second as I share this. My mom, my parents, they live in Payson, so not too far, yeah, I don't mean Southern Utah County and my mom just had knee surgery a little over a month ago. So my dad's been knee replacement, so she replaced her knee.
Speaker 1:My dad's been there for her you know he's in his low 80s and helping her get around and get things and get off the couch. And just shortly after the first few days she was laying down on a couch, sleeping on a couch. She used to be propped up and my sister spent a couple of nights there. So she shared this with me and my dad would. Literally he was on the ground next to her and half of him was underneath the kitchen table and he's on this little air mattress just in case she needed to get up and help her to the bathroom and things. He could be there for her.
Speaker 1:And one night night the medications were making her sick the painkillers and so she's sitting in the bathroom and then the tub is right next to the toilet. She throws up sorry for being so graphic she throws up into the toilet and there's my dad at three in the morning helping my mom back to the couch and then he goes into the bathtub and he's scrubbing it and washing things down at 80 years old. And I just think, man, that's who I want to be right, and just caring, the kindness, the concern. He knows she's in pain but he's going to lay right next to her, uncomfortable as that is, laying on the kitchen floor, you know, on this living room floor, and then just getting up and helping her and then cleaning up after her. I think, yeah, that's what it's, that's who I want to try to be is like my parents and their marriage. But it's this outward mindset, anyway, that our discussion has been about.
Speaker 3:To me, that's a perfect example of commitment, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, he's by her. He's by her side. Yeah, to the very end. No matter what. Yeah that, she's by her, he's by her side. Yeah, to the very end.
Speaker 2:No matter what, yeah, that she's going through. I've got your back, I've got your front. I've got the tub, I've got all of it, yeah, I've got you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got you. Well, thanks so much, Jeff, for coming on and sharing so much wisdom with us today.
Speaker 3:I'm happy to anytime.
Speaker 1:All right, friends, that does it for us. We will see you again next time on another episode of the Stronger Marriage Connection podcast.
Speaker 2:And remember it's the small things that create a stronger marriage connection. Take good care now.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us today. Hey, do us a favor and take a second to subscribe to our podcast and the Utah Marriage Commission YouTube channel at Utah Marriage Commission, where you can watch this and every episode of the show. Be sure to smash the like button, leave a comment and share this episode with a friend. You can also follow and interact with us on Instagram at Stronger Marriage Life, and Facebook at Stronger Marriage, so be sure to share with us which topics you loved or which guests we should have on the show. Next, if you want even more resources to improve your marriage or relationship connection, visit StrongerMarriageorg, where you'll find free workshops, e-courses, in-depth webinars, relationship surveys and more. Each episode of Stronger Marriage Connection is hosted and sponsored by the Utah Marriage Commission at Utah State University. And finally, a big thanks to our producer, rex Polanis, and the team at Utah State University and you, our audience. You make this show possible. The opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the Utah Marriage Commission.