Building Legacy Marriages

Okay, so you broke your spouse's trust, or if you aren't married, your partner's. They are struggling, and angry and your relationship has descended into chaos. What do you do? You need a plan, a process. That's what you get out of this season. How do we rebuild trust? We already talked about what trust is. You should know what it is at this point. Now you need to take the next step. That step is owning your choices. Listen today to really dive deep into how to do that and continue your journey of rebuilding trust in your relationship.

It's been a while since I have created a new podcast. I want you to know that I am still here, but been a little busy. Listen to get the scoop on what has been happening, why I have not created a new episode, and what's the plan for where we are heading.

How do you know how to do something if you don't know what it is you are working on? I want you to have a foundation. Trust is pivotal in our world. You need to know what it is if you are going to build trust. In this episode, we will go over what trust is and what it looks like. I want you to think about examples of trust. Have you ever thought about what trust really is? Develop an understanding of the reality of trust and you will better be able to build trust. Let's get you that information and foundation so you can grow in that area.

Are you struggling with trust? Most people do in some are of their life. If that's you, I want to help you understand it and create your own process for growing to be trustworthy or to trust others again. This season is intended to help you build a foundation of information around the concept of trust so you can take the steps to be trusted or to trust again. Your marriage or relationship deserves for you to grow, but growth starts with understanding and knowing the truth about trust and how to build trust. Let's get you started in building that foundation today!

You have now worked through a process of understanding your dishonesty and now it is time to create a plan to change and grow. This episode encourages you, motivates you, and helps you start to break down what a plan would consist of. A plan is your best option for moving forward. It keeps you focused and ready to change. I discuss a little bit about forgiveness, shame, mental health concerns, depression, trauma, seeking help, accountability, and counseling. I hope you have enjoyed this season! Be ready for another exciting season coming up!

In this episode, we explore commitment. Knowing what you are committed to or how your commitments affect you can help you stop dishonesty. Did you know that? What is commitment about? How does it help you? We will explore all this, some examples, and you will get a challenge. Come listen and continue this process with me!

Now that you have worked on knowing yourself better, it is time to learn more about what you really desire. Knowing your desires with help you understand better why you are being dishonest. It will also help you choose healthier behaviors that will be more beneficial. In this episode, you will get examples and information to help you uncover your desires, plus 2 exercises that can help you develop your understanding of your desires and what your dishonesty is really about. 

Learning who you are is pivotal to being able to make choices and decisions that benefit you. As you work through the process of changing to stop dishonesty in your marriage and relationships, knowing who you are can help you understand more of your strengths, likes, dislikes, cares, fears, concerns, and beliefs. All of this can help you make better choices, instead of reacting or grasping for things. Most lies are built off of unhealthy choices. Let's know ourselves so we can own our decisions and not have to lie. 

Following up our last episode, we want to understand what remorse and repentance is. I discuss how this is a must in your relationships, especially as it deals with dishonesty in marriage. I break down how our heart and brokenness can help lead into this. I also give examples to help you create a plan of how to repent. 

Today's episode discusses how the mind, will, and emotions need to be managed in order to stop dishonesty. I decided to go with this discussion due to the need for "heart change" when there is a need for remorse and repentance. I want people to know what they CAN control, so they are not wasting their energy on fighting something they can't do anything about. In this episode you will learn the difference between the human spirit, heart, soul, mind, will, and emotions. You will also learn how they relate to helping you renew your mind. This discussion will finally help explain the process to renewing the mind so you understand your brokenness and will seek to change. Thus remorse and repentance are part of the process. Keep working on yourself so you can rebuild your marriage! God Bless!

As you continue to work on the process you created, knowing your weaknesses and strengths will help you create a plan. Your goal is to stop being dishonest. You need tools (strengths) and you need to know what keeps you from moving forward (weaknesses). Let's talk about what weaknesses and strengths are, how you can learn about yours, why it is important to know them, and some other important points that can help you use this information to stop lying and hurting your loved ones. Stay focused on the goal: Beating Dishonesty!

A process for stopping behavior or building new behavior can be very important to make progress toward your goals. This is also very true for dealing with dishonest behavior. If you are lying to your spouse and having trouble stopping this type of behavior, then you probably need to sit down and work through a process to change your actions. The process I lay out here is not in order, but can be used as a template to find what works for you. Dishonesty is disastrous to relationships and needs to change. Take what you can from this session and start trying to figure out your process to have better reactions and stop fibbing and start telling the truth.

Today's podcast is the start of a series about dishonesty in relationships and marriage. I have several blog posts on my website brandoncoussenslmft.com that talk about how dishonesty affects marriage and what to do. I want to deepen your understanding of dishonesty. What is it? What is it not? What examples help us understand how hurtful it is? We'll discuss some biblical examples. Finally, we will end it with encouragement. I encourage you to know your enemy! God Bless!

Building Legacy Marriages Podcast is not just another marriage or relationship podcast. Hi, I am Brandon Coussens. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Sex Therapist. I designed the podcast to be a place where you can come and get real, honest, down-to-earth talk about all things relationships. As a Christian with a huge heart for people, especially couples, I want you to have a place where you hear about real struggles in a very real life and learn ways to cope with the ups and downs of life. I especially want to infuse the conversation with Biblical principles and words of wisdom from the one who knows us best, God. 

The podcast will start with a season or series about dishonesty in marriage. My audience from my blogs on dishonesty deserves to hear more about how they can deal with this very real struggle. However, this issue will overlap and intersect with other areas that relate to improving relationships. As the podcast builds, a diversity of marriage topics, guests, and discussions relating to relationships, Christianity, and our world will be introduced. 

I also like the research side of life. I will attempt to provide real research and mesh it with what the Bible says. I believe the Bible is God's Word, and I want to apply it to what research and information are coming out to determine if what we are seeing is true. My goal is to help all couples find the truth, the truth about relationships, the truth about love, and the truth about life together. 

Thank you in advance for taking the time to listen to this podcast. If you have a topic you want me to cover, please email me. Bless you for your participation!