Wow Date Nights…Mission Possible?

Patricia Hartman
25 Nov 2015
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Men, your mission—should you chose to accept it—is to create a WOW date night with your wife. Why? If you and your wife are like most: You are busy with your career(s). You are busy with your kid(s). You are busy watching or playing sports. Your marriage has become routine and lacks vision. You spend more time interacting with your phone than with your wife. Your wife is not as available as you would like her to be. You spend less than three minutes daily meaningfully interacting with your wife.   Are you falling in or out of love? In […]

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Is Your Bride Worth 8 Cattle?

Patricia Hartman
6 Oct 2015
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  We just returned from a mission trip to Africa, visiting four safari camps in Botswana. (Our mission: relax and enjoy God’s creation.) We usually ask our married guides about their marriages because they are required to be away from their spouses for extended periods of time. Three guides had fiancées but were working to get the bride price (Lobola) required by the fiancée’s parents. One’s fiancée was working to pay it. All three already had at least one child.   What is a bride price? This is money or property given by the groom to the parents of the […]

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Kiss Me, Baby!

Patricia Hartman
3 Sep 2015
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  Would it surprise you to learn that less than half of the world’s cultures do not engage in “romantic-sexual” kissing? That’s what researchers, Jankowiak, Volsche and Garcia reported in an article in American Anthropologist in July of this year. Of 168 cultures studied, 91 (54 percent) do not associate kissing with passion. These non-kissing cultures consider the behavior taboo, bizarre or just plain “gross.” For us, it’s the opposite. A world without kissing is unthinkable. Where would Prince Charming or Sleeping Beauty be without their kisses? What would pastors say at a wedding? “You may now shake hands with […]

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Think You Have a Book In You

Patricia Hartman
3 Aug 2015
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Do you believe God has given you a story, memoir song, poem, children’s book or screen play to write? Since I’ve become an author, I’ve been approached by scores of people asking me about writing or getting published. Some just want to write for enjoyment, others have a burning message or a great story that is screaming to be written.   But where do you start? Once upon a time, there was a CPA (me) whose friend commented, “You guys have the funniest stories. You should write them down.” So I did. Forty two of them. My stories became a […]

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Book In You

An App for “Ethical” Cheaters?

Patricia Hartman
1 Aug 2015
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polyamorous

First, there was AshleyMadison.com, a website for adulterers (34 million members). In March of this year a new website for the “polyamorous” launched with 50,000 members in its first month.   Poly what? Poly is Greek for “many.” Amor is Latin for “love.” The Urban Dictionary defines it as “The state of having multiple sexually or romantically committed relationships at the same time, with the consent of all partners involved.” OpenMinded.com says it’s for people who are open to “modern” configurations of romantic and sexual relationships. Founder Brandon Wade describes the polyamorous as “ethical cheaters.” (Oxymoron alert… Does open adultery […]

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Who Wants Marriage Anyway?

Patricia Hartman
3 Jun 2015
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  A 2014 Pew Research Center survey asked which of the following statements came closer to the beliefs of their respondents: Society is better off if people make marriage and having children a priority. Society is just as well off if people have other priorities other than marriage and children. Survey says… 46 percent chose # 1, 50 percent chose # 2. Among 18-29 year-olds, two thirds chose  # 2.   “Marriage should not exist” The world seems to be abandoning marriage. More heterosexual couples are opting for cohabitation, and while homosexual couples are fighting for the right to marry, […]

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Who Wants Marriage

Do It for Denmark

Patricia Hartman
3 Apr 2015
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do it for denmark

Denmark is asking couples to take a romantic holiday vacation and enjoy the benefits of marriage. They hired a travel company to come up with the advertising campaign “Do It For Denmark.” Couples who register, fly to a romantic city (which statistically improves the chances of conception) and conceive a child become eligible for prizes. That’s right… Denmark wants their Danes to make babies. Why?   Countries are dying With few exceptions Total Fertility Rates (TFRs) are dropping, causing population declines. The economic health of countries is endangered anytime its fertility rate drops below the replacement level of 2.1 children […]

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What is the Optimal Age for Marriage?

Patricia Hartman
2 Apr 2015
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Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. (Proverbs 5:18) What is the optimal age for marriage? 18 – 22 – 25 – 30 – Later – Never? Our first day at college, my roommate introduced her 18-year-old friend along with her two babies. She had married at 15 – a common practice in her hometown. Was that too young?   What people say to marrying teenagers – Are you pregnant? – Is this one of those religious things? – Shouldn’t you test the waters before you settle down? – Are […]

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optimal age for marriage

What Were They Thinking?

Patricia Hartman
3 Mar 2015
3 comments
affairs

Isn’t that the question you ask when your pastor runs off with a church member or your friend runs off with his/her trainer from the gym?   The verdict is in: Count 1:  Infidelity – Guilty Count 2:  Not thinking – Guilty What were they not thinking about? The consequences of their actions – the devastation that can never be completely overcome. Before you start shaking your head and pointing your finger, realize that we are all only one thought, touch, look, gaze or Facebook contact from a fall.   Think it can’t happen to you? That’s what most adulterers […]

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Does This Dress Make Me Look Fat?

Patricia Hartman
3 Feb 2015
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Men, does this question strike fear in your hearts? It is the title question raised by Stephen James and David Thomas in their book subtitled “A Man’s Guide to the Loaded Questions Women Ask.” Other no-win questions they teach you to answer are: • “Do you notice anything different about the house?” • “Do you think that woman is pretty?” • “Am I like my mother?” • “Are you as happy as I am?” • “Is there anything you don’t like about me?” While her girlfriends may be “allowed” to answer these questions logically or honestly, you cannot. Your wife […]

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does this dress make me look fat