Marriage Check-in: 6 Questions for a Strong and Lasting Marriage – Equipping Men in Ten EP 1004

Men, do not fall victim to the newest member in the ignorant X-Husbands Club. Make sure you know where your marriage is, ask your wife regularly, and ask her to rank your marriage. Today we're going to give you six questions to ask your bride to have an unbreakable marriage. It's not the critical counts. Not the man who points out how the strong men stumbles or whether dual thieves could have done them better. A credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena, whose face is marked by dust and sweat and blood. Welcome to the Men of the Arena podcast. Our conviction is to call you into the arena of manhood. Call you out of the faceless, nameless bleachers and call you up to be the best version of you, because when a man gets it, everyone wins. Enjoy today's episode. Hey, I'm Jim Raymos, your host and guide leading you to your best version in the stress bubble of life and beyond. Welcome to today's episode. Guys, as you know, our goal every year is to gather 365 impact stories, an impact story is a testimony of transformation or a decisive act to grow that you man your life. Oftentimes, we have the guys writing into us directly. Many times, we have the wives writing in. Whether you're a wife or you're a man, make sure you let us know you're your impact story. We want to share that. We want to celebrate with you. This is the number 235 this year and it says this. I'm 41 years old. I have high cholesterol, positive for Crohn's disease and I have diverticulitis. It's killing me. I'm fatigue daily, sick to my stomach and bathroom issues. I'm hoping TRT, which is testosterone replacement therapy and diet will help me. The more I try to become a better Christian, husband and father, the more Satan tries to attack me. I know I'm on the right path when he continues to attack me. So thank you so much for all of your content. Thank you, Ty, for sharing this. Hit us up. We want to give you some gear to say thank you. Hey, guys, I want to jump into the meat of our podcast. So first of all, I want to say this. I've shared this recently. I cannot tell you the amount of Christian couples that I have seen get divorced in the year 2026. It's shocking. And I think that the reasons I see one, the marriage just drifted apart because the man was not either monitoring the relationship. There was wife who's the thermometer and he's the thermostat or he just failed to ask or really care. Second reason is it's a second or third marriage and these men chose the kids over the marriage. And that caused a disillusion of the marriage eventually, which naturally would happen if you get the marriage in wrong order. And you put your kids ahead of your wife, your bride. And number three is there was a guardrail breach many left for other woman, something happened there and it caused the infidelity destroyed the marriage. But I want to point you to a friend of mine, Chris Herb. Chris has a ministry called couples marriage ministry.org. He does some great work with couples who are struggling or who just want to have more tools to have a thriving and unbreakable marriage. But he talks about having marriage check in questions. And in my book, guardrails, which is right behind me here, over each shoulder, the 10th guardrail talks about inspecting the walls regularly. It talks about having marriage check ins with your bride to see where you guys are as a couple. So here are six questions that Chris has in his ministry. I thought I would share with you. We also interviewed Chris. We'll provide the link in the show notes so that you can go check that episode out. I think it'll be really helpful to you. The first question is what brought you joy this week? I love this question because so often we stick to this mundane questions of how is your day, how is work, how are the kids? How is life in the stress bubble? But this is really cool. What brought you joy this week? What a great question. And you know, I find guys that when I ask Shanna an open any question, she does not lead a lot of help. She will just talk it out. She wants me to ask about her heart. Number two, what is something that was hard this week? You know, where did you struggle? What war on you? What, you know, what, what, what hurt you? What, you know, what caused you to struggle this week? What did you deal with? That was difficult. Number three, what is one specific thing I can do for you this week? That's a good question right there. And if your bride has a love language of acts of service like mine does, that is a loaded question, man. What can I do for you this week? Number four, is there any unconfessed sin or unresolved hurt that we need to share and seek forgiveness for? I listen guys, don't ask that one first. You know, wait a little bit for that one. Like move that down the list as your conversation grows. But I think that's important. Is there anything that we're struggling with? Unresolved hurt? Unconfessed sin? Is there anything that you may have done to hurt her? Is there something that maybe she has done to hurt you? It's a great time to work it out. Number five, this one, you would have guessed this. This is fairly obvious. How can I be praying for you this week? How can I lift you up? And you probably have an idea already from questions one through four. And then the sixth question is, and I love this question, is there a dream or craving that's been on the forefront of your mind? You know, we're leaving here in about three weeks to go on a dream or a craving that Shannys had for many years. In fact, my wife and I wrote a bucket list of places we want to see before we die. And we're actually going to one of those places in the next three weeks. And I want to say this, I want to brag on my board of directors. I have the most amazing board of directors. The my board of directors recognized Shannys tremendous sacrifice being married to a full-time ministry go over the last 34 years. And they are sending us to the place of her choosing and they're paying for our resort stay. It is just a beautiful thing. And she's never had anything like this happen in her life. And she's just on cloud nine. It's helping her to fulfill a craving that she's had for many, many years. So praise the Lord. What a great board. I'm so thankful for those guys. Guys, I hope that helped you day. Short and sweet, equipping men and 10, right? Short and sweet. And I hope this helped you guys to just stay connected to your bride. She deserves it. You deserve it. And our nation deserves it. Our nation needs strong marriages that bear witness of the church of Jesus Christ. Guys, if you like today's episode, but like me, you're more of a visual learner. Every single week, I write a newsletter designed just for you to become the man that God is ordained you to be to offer your masculine gift to the world. If you go to menorina.org, you can sign up to receive my weekly newsletter, ASAP. We send that out every Friday, Rainer Shine, come Heller Highwater. Until next time, feel what's down on the arena floor. Hear the deafening roar of the crowd. Taste the sweetest of victory. Smell the stench of battle. Get in the game. Get dirty. Grind it out. Ask your bride the right questions. And be a man.