Marriage Forecasting

What's the forecast for your marriage? Marriages are as variable as the weather, and every marriage has a climate. Some are chilly and lack intimacy. Others are stormy and filled with conflict. But while the weather outdoors is beyond our control, the communication climates within our homes can be changed--for the better. Communication specialist Tim Muehlhoff offers simple strategies for improving the climate of a marriage. Our individual words and actions always take place within an overall atmosphere of expectations. Without a healthy climate of trust, we are prone to miscommunication and misunderstanding. Muehlhoff shows how to take an accurate climate reading of a relationship and explains what causes climates of poor communication. With current research on marital communication, listening skills, empathy and conflict resolution, Marriage Forecasting provides practical ways for couples to rebuild a warm relational climate. Don't just talk about the weather. Break the cold front, clear the fog, and change the extended outlook for your marriage.



Tim Muehlhoff (PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is a professor of communication at Biola University in La Mirada, California, where he teaches classes in family communication, interpersonal communication, persuasion, and gender. He is the author of I Beg to Differ and Marriage Forecasting, and the coauthor of The God Conversation: Using Stories and Illustrations to Explain Your Faith and Authentic Communication: Christian Speech Engaging Culture. Muehlhoff and his wife, Noreen, are frequent speakers at FamilyLife Marriage Conferences, and he has served with Campus Crusade since 1986. They live in Brea, California, with their three boys.



Dan B. Allender (PhD, counseling psychology, Michigan State University) is professor of counseling at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He taught previously at Grace Theological Seminary and Colorado Christian University. A speaker and writer, his books include The Healing Path, To Be Told, How Children Raise Parents, The Wounded Heart and Leading with a Limp. With Tremper Longman, he wrote Bold Love, Cry of the Soul, Intimate Allies and the Intimate Marriage Bible studies.

Acknowledgments


Introduction


1 What Are Communication Climates?


2 Environmental Press: Why Marriage Can Be a Struggle


3 Improving Your Communication Climate


4 Strengthening Trust in Your Climate


5 Talking Your Way into a Supportive Climate


6 Taking a Reading of Your Marriage


7 Calling a Truce


8 Changing How We View Conflict


9 Seven Principles for Making Disagreements Productive


10 The Necessity of Forgiveness


11 Hurricane Warnings: When Conflict Turns to Abuse


12 Our Communication Climate with God and Why It Means Everything


Epilogue


Resources


Notes

"This book is the most intelligent, practical book I've read on communication in marriage. Add it to your library."



"Tim not only offers a vastly useful language to name the seasons and movements of our marriage, he also gives us the blessing of new clothes. He dresses us for the searing heat, the cacophony of thunder and lightning, and the cold, hollow recesses of winter. He offers us the pleasure of knowing the weather and being prepared to enter not merely to survive, but to thrive in the face of all that the world around us can do. I love this book."



"Hooray! Finally a book that shows us how to create a positive climate in which to work through the common marital conflicts we all experience. Questions at the end of each chapter make this personal for each couple!"



"Every marriage has a climate, and we don't know a better weather forecaster than Tim Muehlhoff. In every relationship there are either fair skies or storm clouds gathering overhead; Tim will show you how to end the rain and bring back the sunny skies you've been missing. Tim is a masterful communicator who makes his points with humor and compassion. This is an excellent book."



"Every time Tim Muehlhoff gets up to speak, he commands the audience's attention from start to finish. I am among his biggest fans, adjusting my schedule to hear his always creative, poignant, funny and God-honoring words. His gift of communication in an auditorium is not outdone by his gift of communication in a book. In his new book, Marriage Forecasting, Tim is refreshingly transparent and honest as he lays out an antidote to the miscommunications that get in the way of so many of us married types. What makes this book even more important to me is that I know Tim, a regular guy who wrestles like the rest of us with how to make a marriage work well and long. Once again through these pages, I marvel at Tim's remarkable ability to communicate biblical truth in real-world ways."



"Dr. Tim Muehlhoff has written a thought-provoking book that is a masterful blend of insight, humor and experience. It is rich with up-to-date, relevant and hopeful advice concerning relationships and marriage. If your desire is to make your friendships better, to navigate (and even thrive!) during the inevitable storms of marriage, or simply to reference a trusted source on communication and conflict, this is your book. It is practical, compelling and a thoroughly enjoyable read that shows you how to improve and strengthen your marriage climate."



"I'm bullish on Tim Muehlhoff. He's authentic. He's anchored in truth. He's passionate about helping and equipping people. And he is a brilliant communicator. He doesn't just grab your attention, his pithy writing will transform your life and marriage. Buy this book. Read and apply it. In the months that follow, the climate in your marriage will improve!"



"Effective communication--speaking the truth in love to one another--is an essential skill for a strong, healthy marriage. Dr. Muehlhoff understands much more than principles for effective communication. He understands how the gospel fundamentally reorders our relationships and changes how we relate to each other. That's what makes this book so helpful for couples who are committed to a God-glorifying marriage." weniger anzeigen expand_less