Your Best Year of Marriage Yet

Happy New Year.

Oh, my goodness, you guys, welcome back to the Naked Marriage podcast. We are Dave and Ashley Willis, and on this podcast, we address the truth about sex, intimacy, and lifelong love. And you guys are looking real good in this new year.

I know 2023 looks good on you. I can't believe it's 2023.

I can't either. I know this. Do you guys, if you're like me, you're gonna get this wrong writing this down for probably the first half of the year. I am terrible about that.

Yeah, I still write, like, 1997 sometimes. It's time goes so fast. But listen, guys, we want this to be the best year ever for your marriage. And so we're doing something we've never done here on the Naked Marriage podcast, and we want to invite you to this marriage challenge. All right? Over the next two weeks, I want you to start strong. We're not asking you to keep this pace up all year, but if you'll do this for two weeks with us, I think it will really set your marriage on the right path for this year and beyond. Every single day over the next two weeks. Yes, actually, from now all the way until January 15th, Monday the 15th, we're going to have a brand new new episode. Dropping this first episode is just a kind of a shorter one just to welcome you to the new year and to talk specifically about a few marriage goals for the new year. But the main thing we want to challenge you to is just to keep tuning in. We have got some amazing interviews lined up about all different kinds of topics, and you're going to learn something from each one of these folks and just. Just make that a plan. You know what? I'm going to carve out 20 or 30 minutes every day on my way to work or on my jog or whatever I'm doing to invest in my marriage. Talk to my spouse about what I lear. I think it can make a huge difference for your whole year and beyond.

It will. And that's the key, is you listen. You can listen separately, you can listen together, but then you talk about it. Okay? Doesn't have to be a crazy long conversation, but just one or two things that you each pulled out of the episode and just talk about it. And I can guarantee, too, guys, the people that we're interviewing, you're gonna laugh, too. So this is gonna be fun. But we're also gonna go deep, as you guys know. And we'll probably go awkward, too, because, I mean, sometimes you gotta have awkward conversations.

So be ready.

Be ready. But the main thing is just getting you off to a really strong start to making your marriage even stronger this new year. And even just slightly stronger is awesome, right?

Yeah. Guys, I'm telling you, in any part of life, if you'll just make the effort to grow consistently in little margins, you know, I'm telling you, it makes a huge difference. You can get 5% better in any part of your life, your marriage, your health, anything that can be life changing.

Yeah.

And it gives you momentum to want to keep improving. And if you listen every day for two weeks, I believe your marriage will be at least 5% stronger because of the wisdom and insight you're going to gain from these conversations. And then I want to throw out a few other things to do beyond those first two weeks as you're looking ahead beyond January 15th. Number one, come to one of our XO marriage conferences. This year we've got XO Grapevine, which is in the Dallas Fort Worth area, happening the weekend before Valentine's Day. The very next weekend will be in Houston and then some events going on. Beyond that, if you can't come in person, you can stream these live online. You can find a live simulcast site in nearly any part of the at least the United States. If you're in the US you can find a simulcast location nearby no matter where you live. So go to xomarriage.com and then click on conferences and you can get information there. I think that could be huge, huge for your marriage. Another thing I challenge you guys is to plan a time to get away, just you and your spouse, just for a reconnection, just for an adventure. This could be just putting a weekend on the books, lining up that babysitter. This could be doing something a little bit more elaborate. Ashley and I are actually leading a trip to Israel this summer. As of the time of this recording, we still have some spots left if you want to go to that. You can email the guy putting the tour together@guyguyordentourist.com Guy Gordon's leading that. That'd be a lot of fun. But whatever you do, just have something to look forward to. I think in our marriage, when we've had something on the calendar, even if it's way off in the future, like, oh, in nine months we're doing this cool thing that gives us momentum on the hard days to look and say that's coming. And that helps a lot. That's a few little tips from me as you start the new year.

And I would say too, for that little getaway we have a great resource called the Vision Retreat Guide. And let me you. It is awesome. Jimmy and Karen Evans wrote it. And then we actually did the video curriculum for it@xonow.com and so if you want to do that just to have a way, you know, it's pretty minimal as far as the. The work in quotation marks involved, but it'll walk you through maybe some conversations that you need to have. And basically what we're trying to say is just, you know, put little pockets in your schedule throughout the year where you are specifically working on your marriage, and it can look a lot of different ways. You can even do it in your own town. I mean, you don't even have to go far. I just think just investing that time is really important.

It really, really is. And before we wrap up this short New Year's episode, because I know it's Sunday, it's New Year's, you guys got a lot going on. We're going to keep this one short, but hopefully, again, you're going to join us tomorrow. You're going to start this whole year off strong. If your marriage is really hurting right now in particular, and we know a lot of folks are, and you're in a safe place, we're glad that you're here. We're glad that you're watching or listening. You don't have to figure this out alone. So connect with a counselor this year or reach out to one of our amazing team of marriage mediators here at xo, who by phone or by Skype, can connect with you or you and your spouse and help you, help you move forward again. You don't have to figure this out all on your own. And so that's the best resolution of all, is to say, we're gonna fight for our marriage. Xomarriage.com help is where you can get information on that.

And just to end this out, maybe you've been through the fire and your marriage has come out the other side and God has done the miraculous in your life, and you have learned so much over the past few years that you want to pay it forward and you want to help others. Maybe this is the year that you become an exomarriage mediator and you can do that. We're actually usually part of the training. We'd love to meet you, we'd love to be alongside you with the other people who are becoming mediators. And if you want this year to be the year that that happens, you can go to xomediator.com for more information.

Guys. Thanks so much for tuning in. We pray that this year is the best year of your marriage yet. Wish you a very, very happy new Year and just pray and believe that God has wonderful things in store for you. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow and every day for the next couple weeks as we together start this year off strong.

God bless.