My marriage is in trouble

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M

mineis

Guest
#1
Ok,

I have never expressed myself about my marriage to anyone. I don't want my family or friends to be mad at my husband. He resently said he feels like there no love in our marriage. He works a part time job and I work full time occasionally overtime when available. I feel like I have to support the family. He complains that we don't spend time together. We had recently spent a romantic weekend. However my husband said he did not feel anything when we were intimate. When he said that it crushed me. I had told him to pray about how he was feeling. I pray for our relationship often. Sadly when I buy him things he gets very happy. In addition he says that I don't help him enough. What do I do?
 

Jimbone

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2014
2,715
826
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#2
Ok,

I have never expressed myself about my marriage to anyone. I don't want my family or friends to be mad at my husband. He resently said he feels like there no love in our marriage. He works a part time job and I work full time occasionally overtime when available. I feel like I have to support the family. He complains that we don't spend time together. We had recently spent a romantic weekend. However my husband said he did not feel anything when we were intimate. When he said that it crushed me. I had told him to pray about how he was feeling. I pray for our relationship often. Sadly when I buy him things he gets very happy. In addition he says that I don't help him enough. What do I do?
How long have you two been married, and is he a Christian too?
 
M

mystikmind

Guest
#3
I think your in a very good position to turn this around. My advice would be to spend some time to do some research... you need to equip yourself with the knowledge of how to save your marriage before you can save your marriage! A good start is a book called 'the marriage you always wanted' by Garry Chapman. I'm sure other people will recommend other fantastic material, help is out there (and above), in abundance!

And just as a crazy addition to all that from me personally, perhaps you can also try something crazy like sky diving! If he has any thoughts that your marriage is in a rut, that would shatter any such feeling! And there is allot more to it than that, such a thing as sky diving, it will change you, it will alter your perspective on life, i have never done it, but i want to!

Oh and if you feel like it is something you could never do, all the more reason to do it!

Anyone who has done sky diving, please comment?
 

tourist

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2014
41,311
16,300
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Tennessee
#4
I think your in a very good position to turn this around. My advice would be to spend some time to do some research... you need to equip yourself with the knowledge of how to save your marriage before you can save your marriage! A good start is a book called 'the marriage you always wanted' by Garry Chapman. I'm sure other people will recommend other fantastic material, help is out there (and above), in abundance!

And just as a crazy addition to all that from me personally, perhaps you can also try something crazy like sky diving! If he has any thoughts that your marriage is in a rut, that would shatter any such feeling! And there is allot more to it than that, such a thing as sky diving, it will change you, it will alter your perspective on life, i have never done it, but i want to!

Oh and if you feel like it is something you could never do, all the more reason to do it!

Anyone who has done sky diving, please comment?
Make sure that your chute is on before you jump from the plane.
 
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mystikmind

Guest
#5
Make sure that your chute is on before you jump from the plane.
Surprisingly, no!.... the first time sky divers have to go tandem, so you will not be wearing a chute, your instructor will!
 
M

mineis

Guest
#6
We have been married for 3 years. He would never go skydiving however I would.
 
M

mineis

Guest
#7
We are both Christian.
 
M

mystikmind

Guest
#8
We have been married for 3 years. He would never go skydiving however I would.
Only 3 years? sounds like the 'honeymoon' period came to an end and he doesn't get it?

My wife is divorcing me, i won't go into detail here, but suffice to say it started going wrong with me not 'getting it' as well, and i think my wife started feeling the same way your husband does now by the third year of marriage, and without help it was all just downhill from there, after 3 more years she is divorcing me.

So what is it that we did not 'get'? Marriage actually requires effort to maintain! Sometimes you need to do things you don't feel like doing, sometimes you need to buy flowers you don't feel like buying, and sometimes you even need to tell them you love them even though you don't feel like saying it. All these things you do that you don't feel like doing are like casting bread upon the water, and in terms of marriage, you will be rewarded with a much better relationship and you will even start to actually 'feel' like doing those things, you have created a positive cycle, rather than a negative one.
 

presidente

Senior Member
May 29, 2013
9,083
1,749
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#9
mineis,

If your husband doesn't feel anything, does that mean your marriage is in trouble, in the sense that it may not last? No necessarily. With the typical American spouse, it is. If you were from India in an arranged marriage where they don't think marriage is based on feelings, it probably wouldn't be.

I wish I could think of a book specifically on marriage that drives home the point that marriage isn't supposed to be based just on how you feel about each other. It is good to have romantic feelings, passion, etc. in marriage, and couples should cultivate that, but if you go through a dry spell, that's no reason to get a divorce. That may be something you could discuss with your husband.

Sometimes people go through 'dry spells' where they don't feel as close to God. Normally, it just feels like God is answering their prayers, but they just don't 'feel it' at other times, and don't have the same joy. A mature Christian can maintain his faith in the desert. He knows that feelings aren't everything. It's good to have good feelings, but our relationships shouldn't be based on them.

Part of love is commitment, too. You could just talk to him about this and see where his thinking is on commitment and if he needs some help in the way of teaching or encouragement in the faith on that issue.

It feels a lot safer in the marriage when you just know both you and your partner are committed to staying married. If the emotional fire dies down, then you know you and your partner will both stick around and work on relighting the fire or stoking it with some new fuel. If you are both on the same page that you work through his emotional funk and stay together, that may give you some comfort.

Several years ago, my wife told she didn't have feelings for me. We'd moved and she later said she was experiencing culture shock. She was grumpy quite a bit. She's also said that sort of thing during bad PMS experiences. Then later, she'd hold me and tell me how much she loved me. So it's not necessarily permanent.

Something I'd suggest is regular, preferably daily, prayer together and reading the word together. If you don't do Bible study together every day, you can still pray together. I've read that though professing evangelicals divorce at about the same rate as the world, less than 1% of married couples who actually pray together regularly get divorced. You can directly pray for his problems. Pray that he will feel more love for you, that he'll feel the love when you are intimate with each other, and for the Lord to work on all these problems.

It may be a hormonal thing, but if my wife is very generous in the physical intimacy area and it's more frequent over a period of time, it intensifies my feelings for her. The verse in Proverbs 5 about a husband always being enraptured by his wife's love is in the context of discussing a couple's sex life.
 
Jan 3, 2015
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#10
Please try something! Don't let your marriage end without a fight. It's worth it if you both are committed 100%! Both parties must be entrusted to fulfill their vows.
 
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mystikmind

Guest
#11
Please try something! Don't let your marriage end without a fight. It's worth it if you both are committed 100%! Both parties must be entrusted to fulfill their vows.
Sometimes half the battle is to gently help your partner get to that point of being 100% committed to saving the marriage, or at least committed enough to learn how to commit 100% to saving the marriage, gotta learn to crawl before you can walk!!
 

Dan58

Senior Member
Nov 13, 2013
1,991
338
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#12

Your hubby sounds a tad self-involved, and is possibly high maintenance. You do most of the work to support the family and he's complaining that you don't spend enough time with him? Tell him its because someones got to feed him and pay the bills! And he's happy when you buy him things? Tell him to find full time work and buy his own things, your his wife, not Santa Claus.

Don't let him lay a guilt trip on you, its not your fault if he doesn't feel anything. Everything gets old, the lovey-dovey part of marriage wears off and reality sets in. The reality is that marriage is 90% work and sacrifice, its not about buying him nice things and making him feel good. The next time he complains, tell him if he got full-time work, you could spend more time with him. And the next time he says that he didn't feel anything, just say; "Neither did I".. He sounds like a mama's boy, so have a talk and explain that the honeymoon is over and its time for him to grow-up, pull his own weight, and stop complaining. Your his wife, not his babysitter. If he's not happy or satisfied all the time, tell him; "Welcome to the real world".
 
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Gary

Senior Member
Oct 23, 2011
246
14
18
#13
Surprisingly, no!.... the first time sky divers have to go tandem, so you will not be wearing a chute, your instructor will!
Not true. You can sky dive alone the first time if you go through the proper course.
 
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mineis

Guest
#14
I agree that marriage is always saving. That is my intent in turning to you guys to give me some kind of advice to give him because I feel like I am just not getting the message across clearly enough. I love him very much but when he starts complaining about time and feelings. I get very upset and I completely shut down. He asks me what he wrong then I explain that I work hard I want him to appreciate it. I am so just frustrated. I am not perfect and I do not expect him to be perfect. I need to give it to him in guy code I guess.
 
N

NewWine

Guest
#15
Mineis, My husband has always been the "provider" for our family. I have been the one at home, taking care of the children, household and such, and I have worked from home to be able to balance it all. When I start feeling the way your husband feels it's usually of my own doing. I am either spending wayyyyyyy too much time thinking and not enough time doing, or I am reflecting my own feelings of inadequacies onto him. Thinking too much, or dwelling on a problem, that we usually create in our own minds, causes the issue to seem 100 times larger than it is, often....note I said often and not always. My mom always said, "idle hands are the devil's playground." The older I get the more I see how true that can be. Even just doing something simple but time consuming sometimes helps me get out of my own head for a while. I can't say for sure that your husband is dwelling or over thinking things, but it definitely sounds familiar to me.

My advice is to ask him what does he need to feel connected to you. Does he need a weekly date? Maybe a once a month weekend to get away from the house and kids? Or even just a daily time to sit together and pray. Keep the communication going. The thing I hope you both remember is that before the children, before the house, bills and responsibilities, comes your marriage. You both have to work to keep keep your marriage ahead of these other things. Together (with God of course) you can overcome any obstacle. The key word here being together. Work with your husband on finding the balance. If this means he needs to go to work full time, then work together on this. Whatever it takes, work together to fix it. If you're the only one doing anything to make your marriage better, then there will be resentment eventually. If he is the only one too. Together, you will find balance. Together you will remain one.

Prayerfully peace!
 
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mineis

Guest
#16
Thank you for your advice.
 

notuptome

Senior Member
May 17, 2013
15,050
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#17
Why does he only work part time? Perhaps his self esteem would improve if he was able to earn a greater part of the household income.

For some people too much free time is a bad thing.

For the cause of Christ
Roger
 
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mineis

Guest
#18
I work very hard to balance work and home duties as wife. I become very tired both mentally and physically. I feel like I am wasting my time with my husband. I want to be in a relationship that is willing to work hard on the relationship. Maybe he does not understand how it sounds when he says that. I feel like I do not doing things he wants to do however I make him feel bad. I accept it as part of our relationship. I don't know if I am wrong.
 
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mineis

Guest
#19
I mean however I do what he wants without making him feel bad.
 

presidente

Senior Member
May 29, 2013
9,083
1,749
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#20
I work very hard to balance work and home duties as wife. I become very tired both mentally and physically. I feel like I am wasting my time with my husband. I want to be in a relationship that is willing to work hard on the relationship. Maybe he does not understand how it sounds when he says that. I feel like I do not doing things he wants to do however I make him feel bad. I accept it as part of our relationship. I don't know if I am wrong.
Some husbands might not understand what their wives are getting at if they say they want to 'work hard on the relationship.' The husband might think, I'm tired after work. Why I can't we just come home and relax and enjoy our evening. Why do we have to 'work hard' at something? And what does she mean? And what are the problems she sees in the relationship? Everything would be fine if she didn't have to see some problem? The problem in our relationship is that she thinks there is some problem in our relationship and gets stressed out about it. That could be going on in a man's head if his wife talks about these things. If there is a problem, he might not see what she sees.

In your case, though, the husband is saying he isn't having the feelings for you that he once had. So your dynamic might be different if he's really concerned about that. He might have just been going through an emotional funk and talking about his feelings. I know it hurts when your spouse says he doesn't have feelings for you, but feelings come and go over time.

There are lots of things you can do to build up your relationship and get closer. But I think the spiritual things like praying together can really help.

Does your husband work hard to support the family? Is that a problem in the relationship?