The Power of Giving Each Other A Break In Marriage

Why is it important to give our spouse a break?

In this episode of the Home and Marriage Podcast, we discuss the importance of giving each other space in a marriage and a couple of great ways to do this is through pursuing personal interests (or hobbies) and friendships. We share personal stories, like Lennon's recent bonding time with our son during his basketball season and Christal's goal to double the number of books she reads this year. We emphasize how hobbies and friendships can boost individual well-being and strengthen our relationship. We also talk about the balance required to make this work and offer practical advice for couples looking to incorporate these ideas into their lives. 

Transcript

Lennon 0:03

This is the Home and Marriage Podcast with Lennon and Christal Noland, where we help couples become better at home and stronger together. We are husband and wife, parents and ministers who want God's best for our home and for yours.

Christal 0:18

Well, hello friends. Thank you so much for joining us again on the Home in Marriage podcast. We're so glad that you chose to click play on your podcast app, wherever you're listening from, and just be a part of this show. So I'm here with my man, my best friend, Lennon noland. How are you doing today, Lennon?

Lennon 0:38

I'm doing good. Loving life. Loving you.

Christal 0:40

That's great. So, uh, hey, I have a question just to start off this podcast today for you, is there anything lately in life that you're just enjoying, you know, just something fun that you have, have loved lately?

Lennon 0:55

Yes, so I would say the. The funnest thing at the moment is, our son is in basketball season, right? You know, he's, this is his sophomore year of high school, and the team he's a part of, is, well, let's put it this way. They don't have the, the classic team bus set up. And so parents are responsible for getting them two games and uh, as a result, I've just had a lot of time with him. Mm-hmm. Over the last couple of months. And this week he had a game down in Waco and so we had a little drive to make there, and we just had the opportunity to spend some time together, eat some food before the game. I'm just really soaking up everything that's happening this year because I remember how much. Basketball meant to me when I was his age, and he loves it just as much. Right? And the fact that I get to be there for it, we get to talk about it before and after. I'm really enjoying that.

Christal 1:48

That's awesome. I know he was talking about how much he enjoyed y'all's Thai food you ate before the game.

Lennon 1:53

Probably not, usually not a standard move before an athletic event. Spicy Thai food especially. Yeah, exactly. But we had got, we got to town early just to give ourselves some time. So we thought, you know, he'll have a chance to recover from spicy Thai food before the game. And he, he did good. So lemme turn that question back at you. What about you? What's joyful in your life right now?

Christal 2:14

You know, I've always loved to read, I'm always reading books, but I have a goal this year to read more books than last year by double. And I think that's a very attainable goal because I do love to read and. I've been spending too much time scrolling. And so my, my goal this year was to cut down the scrolling Yeah. And do more reading. So instead of sitting and scrolling, I'm sitting and reading. Yeah. And so I've actually done well at that. Better than I thought maybe.

Lennon 2:46

Well, you told me the other day you mentioned how many books you had already read. Yeah. And this is just toward the, this might have been right at the end of January or something like that. And how many books have you read so far?

Christal 2:57

So for the month of January, I read six books. Wow. I'm almost done with two more. And for me, that's really good. I mean, there's some voracious readers out there that podcasts that I'll listen to of people who read like, I don't even know, 200, 300 books a year, which I don't understand. That's probably a job, like that's your job, so that's why you read so much. Maybe, maybe not, but for me it's really good and I've just enjoyed. There is something that happens to my brain when I'm sitting and reading. Of course all of us, I think this applies to, but when you're sitting and reading something and soaking up, yeah, maybe really good information or really good fiction story that is different than when you're scrolling endlessly and getting stressed out by all the news and all the stuff that you see. And so for me, it's actually brought a lot more just joy, you know, to everyday life. So that's, that's what's been bringing me a lot of joy lately.

Lennon 3:48

What's crazy with you saying that other people are more voracious, it definitely doesn't mean you're not voracious because I love to read as much as you, but I feel like compared to you, I read at a snail's pace. So you've knocked out six books so far. I think I've probably finished one in January and I'm reading every day, right? I just read, um, I don't know.

Christal 4:10

You read Deep, big. Thinking, deep thinking books that take a lot longer, I think, to get through. Not always is my thought.

Lennon 4:17

Yeah, maybe so, but who knows? So those are two things that bring us joy. And joy is its own justification. Like in our life we need things that bring us joy. And so your idea today for the show was actually to lean into this idea of in marriage, enthusiastically giving one another space to take a break. Yeah. Whether that is. Well, we'll explain what that is, but this is one of our habits in the six Habits of Happy Couples course. Mm-hmm. And so we're gonna jump into it a little bit, but whenever you say, give your spouse a break, frame that for us. What does that mean?

Christal 4:56

Yeah. I think sometimes that phrase could immediately bring up thoughts of, Just give them a break, like, don't, don't be so hard on them. Yeah. That's not what we're really talking about. We're really talking about helping your spouse. Have that permission to go enjoy themselves in some way. The two main things we talk about later is hobbies or friendships. But there's a lot of ways that we can encourage our spouse to just enjoy some time away, not necessarily having to be 24 7 with us all the time. Right. First of all, I will just say I am a quality time person. That's one of my top love languages. Yes. And you know this about me because when we first got married, you saw how important that was to me over so many types of love that you could show me mm-hmm. Was just spending time with me. I've, I've always been that way. And so for me to say, you know, it's good to give your spouse a break. I see the healthiness in that, and maybe I didn't always view it in a, a real healthy way when we were first together or when I was younger. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's normal, I think for couples when they're first married. They go through that honeymoon stage and they wanna be together all the time. Yeah, that's very normal.

Lennon 6:11

Well, I remember you telling me a story about talking to your young adult pastor's wife whenever before we had met and were married and she, her husband was going on a work trip and she was really surprising you and some of the other young women around her by saying, I'm really looking forward to this not, not to going on a trip with him, to him going on a trip.

Christal 6:35

Yeah, that took me by surprise because I was like, is something wrong with their marriage? That she's looking forward to him leaving? But I know now what she was really meaning was, you know, we're with each other all the time. When he goes on a trip, I just. Put some fun things on the calendar or look forward to going to eating food. The chick food stuff to eat. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I don't have to worry about his things and I get to just do my thing and. There's some health in that and there's some goodness in that. Now there's something wrong if you just can't wait to get away from each other all the time. And we're not talking about that. We're talking about just a good healthy balance of that. You know what, we're gonna be together as much as you know and spend quality time when we can. But we are also gonna allow each other to, to have that freedom of enjoying ourselves or have that freedom of looking forward to something outside of just being together all the time. Yeah. Is that making sense?

Lennon 7:33

Yes, we do love each other. We want to be together. And also I can be kind of annoying sometimes. I won't speak for you. Only you can speak to your own annoyingness. I'm definitely not gonna do that on a podcast, but I know for me, I can be a, I can be a lot at times.

Christal 7:46

I think we can all be a lot sometimes, and I'm not gonna affirm that Lennon because I do enjoy being with you very much. But I mean, I annoy myself and I know you've even said out loud, I'm annoying myself right now. Yeah. Like If we're annoying ourselves. Do you think no one else is being annoyed too, that is happening too, right?

Lennon 8:06

Yeah. It's safe to say you get on your spouse's nerves sometimes. So one of the most underrated gifts we can give one another is just, is just a break, right?

Christal 8:15

And so what do we really mean? By a break. So we're gonna clarify that too. Um, this is not first of all about escaping your marriage or avoiding responsibility. There is the opposite side of this where you have the husband who's always golfing, never telling his wife, he's even golfing, just going and doing it all the time. And they may not even have a date night ever scheduled, but golf is first. Yeah. So we're not talking about that. No. Or the wife that maybe she's. She's always going out with friends, but. Just kind of leaves everything to her husband and doesn't communicate either, honey, hey, I'd like to go do this with the girls that work for you too. And having a good communication about those things.

Lennon 9:01

Yeah, A couple of extremes. One is where ship's passing in the night. Or we have hardly time to have a conversation together. We're so busy. But then the other side of that is just a, an obsessive clinginess. You know, where are you going? Yeah. When are you gonna be home? What am I supposed to do with the kids? If you go. out for a little while, that's all unhealthy too. So a healthy marriage, we can give each other room to breathe a little bit.

Christal 9:25

Yeah. Okay, here, here's something. When you were saying that, it made me think of, when you really are the type of spouse. Who doesn't ever give that freedom or a blessing of just going and enjoying yourself, it's just that overbearing, that can really happen, and I think it can happen without us realizing how overbearing we're being.

Lennon 9:45

Yeah. Like, what do you mean whenever you say give a blessing? To give your spouse a blessing, to have a break. That's a very important thing.

Christal 9:52

That's a huge thing. There's a big difference between your husband's leaving to go hang out with the guys to play basketball that Saturday. Y'all have already talked about it. You know, he's going and as he's going out of the door, you just give a sad face. Yeah. Or you make a comment of like, all right, well, I guess I'll just be fine here by myself. Those comments will deflate the person mm-hmm. Before they've ever left and made the outing feel like. They know that they're not really blessed going, doing that. It's not a thing that their spouse is really happy about. Right. So it kinda puts a damper or a wet blanket over the whole thing.

Lennon 10:31

Yeah, it does. Like you, you may be leaving, but I'm not gonna let you feel good about it. Right. And so, yeah, that's true. And guys, I feel like our version of it, I've seen this with a lot of dads in particular that. Mom will go out somewhere, whether it's with her friends or just going to target, just wanting to shop without an eruption or something like that. He acts helpless, like he is suddenly being thrust into babysitting kids he's never met before. Instead of he's gonna be a dad for a while, what am I supposed to feed these guys? What do I do? What time are you gonna get home? That takes the joy out of a break for your wife? It just makes her feel like, well, honestly, I guess he's one of my kids too, and he can't function without me. Is that mean?

Christal 11:13

No, I mean, it's kind of true.

Lennon 11:15

It's kind of true.

Christal 11:16

I, I kind of think we're sometimes in a day where a lot of dads just need more time with just the kids. Sometimes letting their wives go out of the house and seeing what it's like to just take care of them for that day or for that time. And they, they do see a value in what. The other spouse does and it helps give them confidence that, okay, I can do that. We survived this day. You know, I may have given them some frozen chicken nuggets that she doesn't normally give them, or a meal or a can of soup or something simple. They may not do it the same as the mom, and that's okay, but just. Doing that more often is probably really good for dads and'cause I, I will just say as a mom, a lot of moms do deal with guilty feelings to leave the home, to leave the kids for just even a couple hours. Yes. You know, and I don't think we would say that the dad couldn't handle it. It's more about. Am I doing the right thing by leaving them for whatever period of time? And it's a really healthy thing for moms to do that and get those times outta the house and not feel guilty about it. And so I really think giving a blessing is gonna look more like like we were talking about earlier, the husband goes out to play basketball with the guys on a Saturday, maybe the wife says something like, I hope you have a great time. You know, can't wait to see you when you get home. Or for the husband, go to Target by yourself. I will take care of these kids. You are not taking a kid with you. I want you to go to Target. I want you to get a your favorite drink. I want you to go look around and buy something. Yeah. Which man, every woman would love to hear that.

Lennon 12:50

Yeah, the blessing part is really important because home, life and just adulting is every single day just work kids schedules. The never ending battle of what's for dinner. Simple question. Hardest question. In the world, do we have to eat again? Yeah. Is it gonna happen again tonight? What's for dinner? Like these are just some of the everyday pressures that can be really difficult. Yeah, just getting kids to their activities. I mean, goodness. One of the biggest things for me lately has been the chauffeuring around and all of that. Maybe you're in a season of your careers building and so you're in a busier season of work. And when we have a lot of everyday tasks that need to happen, we can easily forget who we were before we even got into this busy life. And maybe the things that brought us joy, the things that we did that were. Enjoyable with our friends. We can really put that stuff aside on the back burner and just focus on just everyday life. Everyday life, everyday life, and never mix in any kind of joy or fun. I mean, Proverbs even talks about this with joy. I am not promoting that all we're living for is whatever makes us happy. But I am saying that the Lord has given us a life, one life to live, and we need to work in joyful things into our lives. Proverbs 1515 says, for the despondent, every day brings trouble for the happy heart. Life is a continual feast. And then Proverbs 17 22 says, a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit SAPs a person's strength. As husband and wife, we want that for one another. Yeah, we wanna encourage that in one another. Yeah, so your spouse can't be your only outlet for relationship connection and fun. And fun together matters, but you need other types of fun too. And the whole idea is that marriage can be lucky candle. It needs some oxygen to, burn strong. Sometimes we gotta step back and let each other breathe. So now that we've said that, what are the areas that we can give each other a break in? We really focus on you teach this habit. Uh, in our conferences, kind of two areas that can really refresh us and strengthen us in marriage. Yeah. And the first area is friendships. And I think this to me is one of the biggest things, the biggest areas over any other area or way to have another outlet of fun in our life. It's friendships. These are really needed in our lives. This isn't really something we should have as an option in our lives. Friendships do so much for us. Studies have shown how friendships can really help us live longer, which is crazy, you know, to think about good friendships, people who we feel when we've been with them.

Christal 15:38

We just feel better. We just feel filled up. I know for both of us, we encourage this. For one another. We need genuine friendships. And it's kind of rare these days, don't you think you, you hear especially, we're in our forties, those thirties and forties, you hear more and more people that are lonely and don't have. Very many friendships are close friendships.

Lennon 15:59

Yeah. And again, it goes back to the busyness and the responsibilities and you have so many things that are begging for your attention. And good friends don't always beg for your attention. Mm-hmm. If anything, we give our good friends a lot of grace. Well, they're really busy right now. I understand. And so your friend's not gonna say like, Hey dude, let's. Let's hang out. That may not happen as much as an adult as it would have when you were a teenager. And so again, relationships outside of the home can really go by the wayside just because you're so busy.

Christal 16:33

Right. And let me just say, first of all, you are my best friend. I mean, I think marriages should be like that, where your husband or wife is your best friend, but you do not supply every friendship need. No, I ever need. There are, there's something totally different about me with one of my best girlfriends that happens in the things that we talk about. That's just life giving. That's not the same as me and you. Right. And that's okay.

Lennon 16:58

That is okay. And that is, that is sometimes it's too much pressure that we put on one another to to be, you've gotta be my spouse, you've gotta be my best friend, and you gotta be my best friend to a degree that I don't need any other friends. It just doesn't. It doesn't make sense. That's not really how humans work.

Christal 17:16

Yeah. And there's some things that I can talk with my girlfriends that I don't think you wanna talk about or care, or you probably would not enjoy talking about. Yeah. Let's just say, yeah.

Lennon 17:25

Yeah. And vice versa. So we don't need to put that pressure on one another that you, you are gonna be my only friend and I'm gonna be your only friend. Mm-hmm. And what I've found, and what I've seen and we've seen in each other is that who we are after we get to spend time with a great friend is a little better than the person that left the house.

Christal 17:45

Yeah. I've noticed whenever you've been out with one of your really close friends, you come home. And you're just way lighter. I can see the burden. It's like burdens have been lifted from your shoulders and you're just lighter. And I know for me too, I'm sure you see that in me when I go out with a friend to coffee and when I come back, especially those life-giving friendships. Yeah, the iron sharpens iron. Not the kind of, we're not talking about. You just need a friend to go out on a Friday night and you know, get turned, whatever it is you do and who brings you down or who doesn't encourage you in the ways they need to. It's important for us to encourage one another to have good friendships and allow space for that. I know there's been times where you've even said to me, honey, maybe you need to go hang out with Peggy, just the ways that you encourage me and say to me, you should go do that. Go have fun. It really helps me realize I probably do need to do that. I need a good friend time and it's been really helpful for me.

Lennon 18:46

So let me ask you this. We're saying that this is far less common for adults than it should be, and if somebody's listening and that is the case, they're like, I'd love to go have coffee with a friend. I haven't done that since the first Trump administration. Like what, um, what would you say to somebody who they're so busy in their own life, in their home life? They don't even know where to start. They feel as awkward as they would have on the playground in third grade. Feel like they gotta walk up to someone and ask, do you want to be my friend?

Christal 19:18

I really do think that most of the time if we want a friend, we need to be the one to invite, because if we're just waiting for someone to invite us, that may never happen, sadly enough. Because I think people just get so busy, and it's not that they're not wanting to, it's just they don't make time for it. And so if you're needing a friend and you're like, I need some close friends, maybe you move to a new town. Or you're in a new situation and you just, it's time for new friends, you know, I would be the one to invite and to take that risk. And the first thing, the one of the easiest things you could do is to say, let's go to coffee or something.'cause it doesn't have to be like a long hangout. It could be short, it can be whatever, you know. Or if you're a mom with little ones. Well, hey, do you wanna go to the park? We're gonna go to the park today. Would you like to join us? Yeah, right. So, or even doing things in groups, inviting a few people and just seeing who you really click with. And so it really starts with maybe you being the one to risk the invitation and, and get someone to come hang out. But you have to take those risks for relationships to form and to start.

Lennon 20:22

In that it works very similar for guys and some guys, women have a really, I think, an easier time connecting. Over coffee or over a meal than some men do. For some men, that's just as easy as it is for women. Mm-hmm. But I've heard it said like, women connect best knee to knee, men connect best shoulder to shoulder. Mm-hmm. That sometimes for a guy having an activity to be doing while you're connecting with other men, take some of the relational awkwardness away and you see who you connect with along the way. So that might be, um. City basketball league or golfing in a group or, and those are just sports stuff, but it might be hanging out with a couple of guys on, on break at work saying, Hey, you guys wanna go hit the Chinese buffet? That's how I would do it. Gentlemen. I would say, y'all wanna go to Asian King Buffet and um, get you some Chinese food while you connect with some guys. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's good. I would not be wanting to go there. No, I just, and friends I'm notoriously open to, to me, even bad Asian food is pretty good. Asian food, and so I'm always trying to drag friends to the Asian King Buffet.

Christal 21:31

So really we need to encourage one other to have friendships. And this does not matter if you are an introvert or an extrovert. Introverts need friends just like extroverts need friends. Maybe you're a capacity for how many friends or how often you go out might be different. But if, even if you're an introvert, you need a good friend.

Lennon 21:51

That's a wonderful point, and I wish we, we should just. Have you say that three times in a row? Because I do know that there are people like me. It's hard for me to feel lonely, honestly, because I am one of, I am one of these people. Yeah. But even introverts need a friend, and your spouse needs you to have a friend other than them. It's good for your heart, it's good for your life.

Christal 22:13

Yeah. And so the other area too that we should encourage one another to take a break or to have a break would be your hobbies or activities or things that you're really interested in. Like we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, the things that are really bringing us some joy. What are those things that you love to do? Maybe it was something you once did and you just forgot about it, and you still wanna do it, but you just don't. Make the time for it.

Lennon 22:41

I remember whenever I met you, uh, one of the things you were into was making jewelry. You had this kind of artistic side of you, and as we fell in love, got married, had a child, you know that those kind of. Artistic things were harder for you to get to, but you did try to revisit that it's an important part of you. And then over the years, that's tweaked a little bit. You don't make jewelry anymore, but you like to, you like to knit. Mm-hmm. And so those kind of things are very important for you. Like whenever we meet this person that we fall in love with, they have a whole life. Like things they do, things that they're into. And as we've said a number of times here, we don't wanna shrink that life down to just the two of us and whatever kids we have in this house.

Christal 23:29

Yeah. I have what they call the the old lady hobbies. Now I love to net. I love to garden. I have chickens. Like those are the things that bring me joy. Yeah. And I will just say. There's been many a time where I maybe have been very stressed in the day where something has happened, but if I go outside, get in the garden, go do some chicken chores, whatever it may be, sit and watch an old Jane Austen movie with my knitting, you know that afterwards, I am like a different person.

Lennon 24:00

Yeah. Yeah. It has a tremendous effect on you. It just kind of makes, yeah. Happiness. Mm-hmm. Your breathing easier, you're laughing. That kind of thing is really important. And so we, hobbies aren't selfish. They're life giving, and this again, comes down to one of those areas where we've got to encourage our spouse, Hey, I don't mind investing in that. A little bit. One of the things we found with the gardening, you love to garden, but you're gonna need me to do some heavy lifting and every spring we're gonna need to make a little bit of a monetary investment. But I have really found that the you, I get after you've gotten to do your old woman hobbies, such as the garden stuff, it's a youth that I, that I really love and enjoy. Yeah. And hobbies make us more interesting people. Yes. I mean, don't we wanna be married to someone who's interesting? Yes. And joyful. So it's good that we do encourage one another to have this, it, it also reduces stress, like we were talking about, reduces stress and cortisol. There's a lot of emotional and mental health benefits associated with hobbies or finding that activity that you really love. And so we want to be married to that kind of person. So it's good that we encourage one another to have a hobby. So tell me about you. What are some things, which I know some of your hobbies and the things that bring you joy. Tell the people that you love to do. Yeah, this is, again, my hobbies are expressions of the boring person that I am, and so they're not incredibly complicated, but I love, I do love going to the gym and working out, and while I'm working out, I'm listening to podcast. That would drive anyone else crazy, maybe make them incredibly. Bored, whether that's on theology or apologetics or maybe a sports podcast. I just really love that. Yeah, that is a big reset button for me. Or going on a long walk. This year I got into absurdly long walks and rucking. Yeah. Which is walking with heavy things on your back, and so there's something about it that helps me kind of blow off steam and everything. It just helps me relax and it makes me healthier, which doesn't hurt. Mm-hmm. But for me to do that, um, you, I mean, for me to go rucking in the evening or go on some sort of long walk, that's a. I don't know if it's a tremendous sacrifice for you, but for me to begin to have that hobby that did change, kind of what would've typically been a routine. Right? Right. And it's so, it is a sacrifice for you that you've made in a way, and it's been really good for me.

Christal 26:29

I think that's a really important point right there. I have heard. Other women say, I really love this, I wanna get back into this. But I don't know if I could do that or if my husband would allow me to do that. And of course, I know we have different seasons of life, and some seasons some things are harder to do in a, in those seasons, but. It's worth exploring, and as a spouse, we should try our best to see what we can do to allow them to do that. Yeah. I, I don't, I think we can easily become selfish or be worried, like it's gonna disrupt everything. And you'd be surprised at the kind of things. It does for your marriage and these hobbies or these activities or interests to be a part of our lives. I think it really does bring a lot more joy than it does the stress of arranging schedules. Yeah, there's gonna be some sacrifice. Maybe you'll have to be the one to make dinner once a week so your spouse could go to knitting club that night. Right. So there's some adjustments that may need to happen, but they're so worth it and I think you and your spouse just need to agree this is something we could do right now. It might be a little sacrifice, but we could do this.

Lennon 27:38

Yeah. So let's close with that. Let's close with kind of how to begin. Even the practice of giving each other a break. Like where, where does a couple start? They're like, yeah, we never do anything. We're just surviving here, trying to keep our head above water. Yeah. Where do they start?

Christal 27:55

Yeah. We've had those seasons where really we are just trying to survive, but I think first you need to think about the friendships You need to invest in. Maybe there's someone that you are friends with but you just haven't hung out in a while and you just need to do that. Put some time on the calendar. Be open with one another and share to your spouse. I really would love to try this hobby. I would really love to do more coffee times with my friend Sarah. So just make it a conversation and be open about that. And I think too, For each other. You need to give time and permission to one another.

Lennon 28:32

Yeah, that's a, that's a really big deal. And, and if you're wanting to make this a habit, like we are encouraging you to do, look a little further down the road, don't just think of this as a, well, I guess you can go out. You know, this Saturday afternoon, it's, it's been three months, How could you kind of frame this into your life to where like, yeah, it can be a pretty normal thing on Saturday mornings. I'll take the kids for a few hours so you can, so you can go do this like that. Time and permission, and again, blessing. I want this for you. It's good for you is an important part of what we're talking about.

Christal 29:09

Yeah. I almost don't like that word permission because. We aren't like hell captive by our spouse by everything we do. But there's something, I love the blessing word, and I think it's important that you communicate. I mean, we've learned this through our marriage that it's a huge difference saying, Hey, I'm going to go do this, versus, Hey, I'd like to go do this. Is it work with your schedule too? Yeah. Is this cool just to, just out of respect and honor for Yeah. Your lives as a couple? Yeah. So it's not really extent I give you permission. It's more about. Let's communicate on how this would work for us. And I also wanna give you the blessing to go enjoy yourself with your friends. Go enjoy yourself doing your hobby. You do not need to satisfy my every need and want.

Lennon 29:54

Yeah. And because you want what's good for each other, you can review occasionally. Hey, let's check in. Is, is this working? Can we sustain this hobby? Maybe this one's a little too expensive. It's hitting the budget really hard. Uh, are we rein it in a bit, reign it in a bit, or are we. Are we in balance as a family? Those kind of things are important. And listen, friends, you can do this like taking a break, giving each other a break. This isn't gonna weaken your marriage. This is gonna strengthen your marriage.

Christal 30:22

Yeah. You want a marriage where both people are refreshed, you're supporting one another. There's joy in the everyday life. We need to give that to one another.

Lennon 30:31

So friends, that's where we're gonna leave you giving each other a break. It's, this isn't a thing that'll weaken your marriage. This is a thing that can strengthen your marriage. You need to see each other every once in a while. Come back from doing something that you really love. I think you're gonna like that version of your spouse. You might feel like you're seeing them for the first time in a long time. So don't forget to follow or subscribe, so you never miss an episode. We drop new ones every Tuesday, and if this encourage you today, would you share it with a friend so they can find the community? You can visit us@homeandmarriage.com for more resources like the Six Habits of Happy Couples Course we talked about. And if you'd like us to come speak at your church or event, you can schedule us through the website, follow us along throughout the week on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. All of those links are in the show notes.

Christal 31:20

Thank you for joining us on the Home and Marriage Podcast. We really do believe that home can be your favorite place. We'll be back again next week with more encouragement and wisdom to help you become better at home and stronger together. I.