For thousands of years, human beings have been degrading other human beings via pornography — from Greek pottery to glossy magazines, movies, the internet and more. Today, with isolation, loneliness, lockdowns, and anxiety, mental health problems are on the rise and so is pornography.

It’s well known that pornography earns a lot of money for those who produce it, but less well known is the cost to society in general. Employees who use company computers to look at pornography during work hours cost the economy $17 billion a year, and that’s nothing compared to the human cost.

“In the silence of the heart, God speaks!”  This is a quote by Mother Theresa that has come to mean a whole lot to me in my life.  Our world is so full of distractions and is so very loud.  I thought after I left my full-time job to come home that things would slow down, and the distractions would be less…Who was I kidding?  Now instead of five adults telling me what to do I have five wonderful children harping orders at me.  I think, no I know, that my kids are more demanding than the Bishop I used to work for!  (Man do I miss working for my bishop!) 

We are mid-January and now we cannot go anywhere without seeing red and pink hearts…they are everywhere! Many people enjoy the upcoming holiday, while others dread the holiday, calling it, “Singles Awareness Day” instead of Valentine’s Day.

A few weeks ago, we discussed marriage as a partnership like you’d find in an adventure movie.  Today, we need to look at partnership from a slightly different angle.

Yes, our differences can cause conflict or complementarity.  They can push us apart or join us together.  The reality, though, is this only works when both partners do three, specific things very consistently.

All the laundry was folded, the kitchen was clean (enough for me), and there was nothing left for me to work on.  Tara was watching Christmas movies, the kids were entertaining themselves, and I wasn’t sure what to do next.

Part of my morning prayer routine is reading the daily scriptures that the Catholic Church gives us for Mass and spending time pondering the message God is calling me to hear.  After pondering for a moment or two, I spend time journaling about the message.  Today, I literally wrote: “I think the readings want me to know that Dan is very blessed to have me as his wife!”  I then spent about five minutes laughing.  Of course, I told Dan, exactly how blessed he was.  He is so smitten, that he agreed with me.  This made me laugh even harder. 

If you Google “what to do when marriage is boring”, you’re going to find a whole bunch of websites that suggest some sort of activity to overcome the boredom.  They suggest new experiences, changing routine, rearranging the furniture, or visiting an attraction neither of you has seen before.  The list goes on and on.