Latest / Marriage Life and More and Bible Study / 4 Types of Boundaries in Marriage - 234
Transcript
- 0:05Michelle Moore: I love to hold hands, I love to be right next to Daniel.
- 0:10Michelle Moore: I'm more of a touchy-feely I wouldn't say touchy-feely but I like to have you by my side and I love that.
- 0:17Michelle Moore: And you know, at first you weren't used to that and so now it's just automatic, like we can just get right next to each other and hold hands or something like that.
- 0:27Michelle Moore: And we're more affectionate, but I do think that has to be.
- 0:31Michelle Moore: You have to understand if a partner is not ready for that and you need to talk to them and meet in the middle.
- 0:39Michelle Moore: If that's not something they're comfortable with, you need to make sure that you're like hey, give them time, Pray about it.
- 0:47Daniel Moore: This week on Marriage Life and More, we're going to be talking about boundaries in marriage.
- 0:51Daniel Moore: We'll get back into that right after this.
- 0:54Daniel Moore: Thank you, welcome to Marriage Life and More.
- 1:36Daniel Moore: This is a podcast about marriage, bible and book studies, interviewing people that have stories.
- 1:40Daniel Moore: I'm Daniel Moore, your host.
- 1:41Daniel Moore: I have my wife, michelle, sitting over here.
- 1:43Daniel Moore: She's the co-host of the podcast.
- 1:45Daniel Moore: So we're going to do our best to go through this week's episode.
- 1:48Daniel Moore: If you're not familiar with our show, you can check us out on our website at marriagelifeandmorecom.
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- 2:24Daniel Moore: As I said, this week and probably next week, we're going to probably stretch this out in two different episodes.
- 2:26Daniel Moore: We're going to be talking about boundaries in marriage, and I think this is an area that a lot of people struggle sometimes as knowing where to set those boundaries.
- 2:34Daniel Moore: When is it okay to set boundaries?
- 2:36Daniel Moore: And we're going to knock some myths out of some of the boundaries this week.
- 2:39Daniel Moore: So we're going to.
- 2:41Daniel Moore: We're pretty excited about these episodes and hope that they'll minister to you guys in your situation.
- 2:45Daniel Moore: So this week we're going to be talking about boundaries in marriage.
- 2:49Daniel Moore: So boundaries, they are meant to increase love, faith and respect in marriage.
- 3:05Daniel Moore: They create structure so we're accountable to each other and help resolve conflict quickly instead of letting it escalate.
- 3:12Daniel Moore: Sometimes people are passive in conflict because they're afraid or they feel guilty, but they end up not bringing any truth to the situation and then they in turn enable that behavior.
- 3:22Daniel Moore: Not bringing up issues is not gracious, because truth without any grace is judgment, but grace without any truth is a license to continue.
- 3:32Daniel Moore: When you're frustrated, you should bring up your concerns right then, and I think that's why Paul talks about solving conflicts in a timely manner in Ephesians 4.26.
- 3:41Daniel Moore: This approach is being seen in both grace and truth.
- 3:45Daniel Moore: When making boundaries, it's good to be specific by saying when you're upset, I would like for you to speak to me in a loving tone.
- 3:53Daniel Moore: You can still be truthful to me.
- 3:56Daniel Moore: It must be that specific because the other person could say I can't please you, I can't do what you want, but if you can make it specific, then you can have a conversation.
- 4:05Daniel Moore: You should always end a conflict with a commitment to change, because habits are hard to change.
- 4:11Daniel Moore: There must be a willingness to talk again and have conversations about how the change is going.
- 4:16Daniel Moore: Having reasonable accountability and specificness helps make these new habits stick over time.
- 4:23Daniel Moore: So as we get started into this week's episode, I'm talking about boundaries.
- 4:28Daniel Moore: I know within our marriage you know we've had a lot of issues in different places at different times in our marriage.
- 4:34Daniel Moore: We've had some major issues with boundaries because we didn't really approach those correctly and it is an ongoing learning process, I think what was boundaries?
- 4:44Michelle Moore: I don't know, I'm pretty sure I don't think we had any, and I love this, the fact that there's biblical boundaries in marriage.
- 4:52Daniel Moore: Yeah, and so what we're going to do here, as we start off, there's different kinds of boundaries, and I guess what we'll probably need to do first we're going to define those is what we're going to do.
- 5:04Daniel Moore: And so in marriage there's four different boundaries that we look at.
- 5:10Daniel Moore: One of those is emotional, one's physical, one's spiritual and one's relational.
- 5:15Daniel Moore: So right off the bat here we start looking at this, and when we think, well, boundaries aren't that big of an issue, well, really, they encompass every portion of our very being.
- 5:25Daniel Moore: I mean, we can have boundaries in all different areas that all come together to form that big picture.
- 5:31Daniel Moore: And so what we're going to do here first of all, is we're going to define some of these boundaries so that we can have an understanding exactly what we're talking about here as we talk about these different kinds of boundaries.
- 5:42Daniel Moore: So the first one is emotional boundaries, and those refer to the healthy limits that a couple sets to protect each other's emotional well-being, and it also ensures mutual respect and promotes a safe and supportive relationship.
- 5:56Daniel Moore: These boundaries help both partners remain emotionally secure while allowing intimacy and growth.
- 6:01Daniel Moore: So we're going to break down a few emotional boundaries that might be included in marriage this week, and the first one is respecting individual feelings.
- 6:10Daniel Moore: Tell us a little bit about that one.
- 6:14Michelle Moore: So allowing each partner to feel and express their emotions without judgment or minimization, avoiding dismissive responses like you're overreacting or that's not a big deal.
- 6:29Daniel Moore: Okay.
- 6:29Daniel Moore: So within this one here, this one's probably a big one in all reality in a lot of different marriages, because it's real easy and this kind of rolls over to communication even, because sometimes we feel like we can't talk to each other because we're going to get judged or the things that we have to say might be super, you know, you might have something to say that's super important to you, but I may look at it like that's not that big a deal, you know, and I want to minimize it, and so then that makes you the next time when you come back around you're you think twice about wanting to talk to me about that stuff, you know, because is he going to just minimize it again, or is she going to, or is he going to understand that this is something that's important to me?
- 7:15Daniel Moore: And you know how many times have we gotten into conversations where it got a little heated in the past and you know we basically was, you know, treating each other like, you know, you're just overreacting about this, or you know that's really not that big of a deal.
- 7:31Daniel Moore: There's bigger things we need to think about, you know, and I think that you know there's times that we've actually, you know, done that in our relationship, and when that stuff happens, really it's two different people on two different planes at that point, and so you have to figure out, as a married couple, how you can come together in unity on these things.
- 7:53Daniel Moore: The things that don't seem big to me I need to change that.
- 7:57Daniel Moore: The things that you don't think is all that big deal.
- 7:59Daniel Moore: You know from my side of it.
- 8:01Daniel Moore: We need to be open to seeing.
- 8:02Daniel Moore: You know both sides of that equation.
- 8:04Daniel Moore: The second part of this is protecting emotional space, and that's recognizing when a partner needs time to process feelings or decompress without pressuring them to engage, and that also means not demanding immediate emotional availability when the other person needs space.
- 8:20Michelle Moore: That's hard.
- 8:21Daniel Moore: That's very difficult.
- 8:23Michelle Moore: I, you know I struggled with that.
- 8:24Michelle Moore: I mean, I I'm a, you know, I think sometimes let's talk about it now, let's talk about it now and you need your time and your space and I pushed you into it, which I think at that point in time you got frustrated with me because it's like I wasn't listening to you.
- 8:42Michelle Moore: So you have to be careful with that.
- 8:45Daniel Moore: Yeah, and I think that this is probably a spot where a lot of couples have issue is whenever they get to an argument.
- 8:53Daniel Moore: Or maybe it's not even an argument, maybe you're just upset about something, but you're not ready to talk.
- 8:59Daniel Moore: And then you have that person that comes along, whether it's your spouse or whoever it may be pushing you.
- 9:05Daniel Moore: Come on?
- 9:06Daniel Moore: What is it?
- 9:06Daniel Moore: Just talk to me, what is it.
- 9:07Daniel Moore: You know, yeah, sooner or later you probably need to unload and talk about it, but you're going to have to have that boundary set there when you are ready to do that?
- 9:15Michelle Moore: Yeah, and I think the other person needs to respect that.
- 9:18Michelle Moore: You know yes.
- 9:20Daniel Moore: In a codependent relationship and this happens a lot where one spouse kind of rules the roost, I guess is the best way to put that you have one spouse that's really overbearing on the other spouse and they take it upon themselves as their responsibility to regulate their other spouse's emotions all the time.
- 9:40Daniel Moore: I believe, that was me.
- 9:40Daniel Moore: They try to call the shots, you know, and so that's something that you really need to avoid.
- 9:44Daniel Moore: Try to call the shots, you know, and so that's something that you really need to avoid and we'll talk a little bit more about that later on because each person needs to be their own individual person yes.
- 9:51Daniel Moore: Within themselves.
- 9:52Daniel Moore: The next one's managing emotional responsibility, and that's taking ownership of your own feelings rather than blaming your spouse for how you feel.
- 10:09Daniel Moore: You know how many times in conversations we should have those conversations where you know I feel hurt when you did this or you made me feel like this when you said that.
- 10:14Daniel Moore: You know we've got to be honest with each other and you know, be careful with some of that stuff that takes place.
- 10:24Daniel Moore: You know when that happens.
- 10:25Daniel Moore: The next one is healthy communication of needs and limits, and read that one to us.
- 10:31Michelle Moore: Clearly expressing what is emotionally acceptable or not.
- 10:34Michelle Moore: An example of I need you to speak kindly to me during disagreements, being honest about emotional triggers or sensitivities, while being respectful of your partners.
- 10:49Daniel Moore: So here we have, how healthy communication can take place, and this is something that you and I had to learn over time, because we would go at each other instead of try to work with each other.
- 11:02Daniel Moore: We would go at each other instead of try to work with each other.
- 11:04Daniel Moore: And it's in a relationship or in really in any kind of relationship, even if it's not a marriage.
- 11:11Daniel Moore: If you're not open to carrying on a civil conversation, it's not usually going to go well, right, right.
- 11:17Daniel Moore: You know.
- 11:17Daniel Moore: And so when it comes to these emotional areas in marriage especially, you need to make sure that there's some boundaries set there where you know this does kind of open it up, to where we are a safe space for each other, because I need to be able to say like, if I pop off at you and I say something mean out of the moment, because I'm just not thinking or whatever, then you should be able to have that safe space to come back and say, hey, that hurts me.
- 11:45Daniel Moore: We need to stop this for a moment and talk to each other a little bit more civilly about this, and then that should check my spirit and make me, you know, change the way that I'm coming into this conversation.
- 11:55Daniel Moore: And that's something that a lot of couples also have issues with, I think, because if one is so adamant that they're right and the other one is wrong and they want to prove their point, then if they're not open to being civil in their discussion because they're trying so hard to push their thought process and the whole situation, it can really escalate that and really create some really bad arguments and some bad fights.
- 12:21Daniel Moore: So that's another part there of the emotional boundary in marriage that we need to be careful of.
- 12:27Michelle Moore: And I think a lot of times you know, if your partner is speaking to you in a way that you don't want, you need to just stop and just say I know you probably don't mean it this way, but this is how I feel, you know and kind of deactivate that atmosphere of accusing or whatever to where you know.
- 12:48Michelle Moore: And a lot of times now I mean I look at it, is this conversation good?
- 12:52Michelle Moore: Is it going to grow us?
- 12:53Michelle Moore: Did he pop off?
- 12:54Michelle Moore: How would I respond if it was like?
- 12:57Michelle Moore: I know this is crazy, but sometimes I think how would I respond if that was god, like you know, would I respond in a loving manner?
- 13:03Michelle Moore: Would I respond?
- 13:04Michelle Moore: You know, obviously wouldn't respond in a hateful manner.
- 13:08Michelle Moore: But a lot of times I have to step back and think I mean, sometimes I'm joking Like we had that discussion in the car one day.
- 13:14Michelle Moore: We, I was joking with Dan, but because of our past it was kind of like a trigger.
- 13:19Michelle Moore: I mean he's like I know, you mean, and I was like no, you know.
- 13:22Michelle Moore: But then if I go back and think about it, the emotional side that we went through and everything that could be a trigger, and you know, you're ready to talk that out and I was joking around and it's like you know, sometimes things are meant to be joking around but at the same time, when you're in the heat of the moment, in the emotions, you have to be very, very careful in what you say.
- 13:47Daniel Moore: Yeah, but it's good that we're to the point now where, when that does happen, we know to stop right there and talk it out.
- 13:54Daniel Moore: I could have just not said nothing and then went the rest of the day just upset because you.
- 13:58Daniel Moore: And we did go through a time I thought that looked like something when it wasn't.
- 14:02Michelle Moore: Hey, you don't know how much I appreciate that, though, because of all the years we've went through.
- 14:08Michelle Moore: But I remember also, when you know we had date night, we would go back and I would say, hey, during this period of time like the week from week when we'd have it I'd be like you said this, and I'm not sure exactly what you meant by this, but I've kept that in here, like so let's talk about it and sometimes that's good to do.
- 14:29Michelle Moore: I mean, I feel like it's great to do.
- 14:32Michelle Moore: If you can't do it at that moment and that person needs space, bring it back up to make sure that you're both on the same page and that communication is there.
- 14:41Daniel Moore: Yeah, you got to be able to clear your mind.
- 14:42Michelle Moore: Yeah.
- 14:43Daniel Moore: That stuff just builds if you don't, and that's not a good thing to have that sitting inside there and just getting a bigger, bigger monster in the room.
- 14:50Michelle Moore: Especially if you hold grudges.
- 14:51Daniel Moore: Yes, you need to get that out immediately or as soon as possible.
- 14:55Daniel Moore: Speak it out or pray about it when both of you are emotionally available to each other.
- 14:58Daniel Moore: The next one is protecting against emotional abuse or manipulation, and this is a big one, I think, in marriages when it comes to emotional boundaries, and it can be this way even with relatives or friends.
- 15:13Daniel Moore: This one's huge.
- 15:15Michelle Moore: Read the points under that one, setting limits around behaviors like guilt tripping, gaslighting, silent treatment or emotional blackmail, behaviors like guilt tripping, gaslighting, silent treatment or emotional blackmail.
- 15:25Michelle Moore: Ensuring each partner feels safe to be vulnerable, without fear or manipulation.
- 15:30Michelle Moore: And I think about this one because I went through that in my first marriage.
- 15:39Michelle Moore: I'm trying not to cry because today has just been one of those days.
- 15:40Michelle Moore: When it comes to marriage, my heart is just for it and I've just done nothing but shed tears.
- 15:44Michelle Moore: But I've been in that situation literally, where, you know, I felt like everything was my fault when it wasn't even my fault and it just tore me down.
- 15:54Michelle Moore: And I know we have had an episode talking about that, but it's not healthy at all.
- 15:59Daniel Moore: No, and I think one big thing that happens in marriages is we never want to be wrong, we always want to be the one that's right in the conversation, and so a lot of times our very first instinct is to guilt trip, and this happens even with kids.
- 16:17Michelle Moore: I was going to say, when you say guilt trip, that's what I did with our daughter.
- 16:20Michelle Moore: Like you know, there were things that I know that I did daughter.
- 16:22Michelle Moore: Like you know, there was things that I know that I did.
- 16:24Michelle Moore: I look back now and I'm like, oh gosh, you know not a horrible person, but I back then I didn't realize that I was doing what I was doing.
- 16:36Michelle Moore: But you can do that with your children to make them want to do what you want to do, and that's not.
- 16:40Michelle Moore: It can mess a child up.
- 16:43Daniel Moore: Yeah, and this is part of being married your family.
- 16:47Daniel Moore: And so when you're looking at this gaslighting, guilt tripping and the silent treatment or that emotional blackmail, the different things that we can do to each other to be mean and manipulative, that doesn't just speak to you and the spouse that can happen on that can trickle down to your kids, especially in a blended marriage situation.
- 17:04Daniel Moore: Spouse that can happen on that can trickle down to your kids, especially in a blended marriage situation.
- 17:04Daniel Moore: That's a huge one that you have to be super careful of and make sure you're not doing that or allowing that to happen.
- 17:11Daniel Moore: And because it does, it takes that safe space away between you and your partner, your spouse, and it makes that other spouse or even your kids.
- 17:21Daniel Moore: It makes them vulnerable to have that fear of being manipulated all the time.
- 17:26Daniel Moore: And you can rewrite somebody's psyche, their emotions.
- 17:31Daniel Moore: You can rewrite who they really are in their minds when you continually pound them with gaslighting and guilt tripping and all this kind of thing.
- 17:39Michelle Moore: And for listeners, for people who have no idea what gaslighting is, because it took me forever, because somebody said one day I was had a situation where someone accused me of it and I'm like what in the so?
- 17:55Michelle Moore: What is gaslighting?
- 17:56Michelle Moore: Gaslighting is a psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality or memories, and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one's emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.
- 18:22Daniel Moore: Yeah.
- 18:22Daniel Moore: So basically that's much better stated than what I would have been able to put out there.
- 18:27Daniel Moore: That's a deep, deep definition there.
- 18:30Daniel Moore: But when somebody believes something and they tell you what they believe, but then you come at them and you speak over them something differently and it goes to the point where you eventually change their thought process on what they believe.
- 18:38Daniel Moore: But then you come at them and you speak over them something differently and it goes to the point where you eventually change their thought process on what they really thought.
- 18:44Daniel Moore: That was, whether, if it's a lie or not, you eventually manipulate someone into believing the way that you believe, even though that may not be the correct way of believing.
- 18:55Daniel Moore: They call that gaslighting whenever that takes place.
- 18:58Daniel Moore: Now there's a lot of people to throw gaslighting around when it's not truly gaslighting, that's the situation that we had.
- 19:06Daniel Moore: They think they know what that means, but there's times that that's used that that's not really the case.
- 19:11Michelle Moore: And who knew that would even be a word?
- 19:13Michelle Moore: I mean, my goodness.
- 19:14Michelle Moore: We've never heard that word until what?
- 19:15Michelle Moore: Two years ago?
- 19:16Michelle Moore: Like what in the?
- 19:17Michelle Moore: What in the?
- 19:18Daniel Moore: world, so they're always coming up with new things.
- 19:20Daniel Moore: It's very interesting, it's ridiculous.
- 19:22Daniel Moore: And then the last one here on emotional boundaries is prioritizing emotional honesty and integrity.
- 19:27Daniel Moore: So another boundary that we can put in place in marriage emotionally is by being open about what you're feeling, rather than bottling up or hiding emotions to avoid conflict, and then choosing honesty over passive aggression or emotional withdrawal.
- 19:42Daniel Moore: This was my problem.
- 19:44Daniel Moore: I did not want to have conflict with you, so I chose not to say things and did not communicate with you, because I knew that if I didn't say nothing, we wouldn't have the argument, we wouldn't have the discussion, I wouldn't hear things I didn't want to hear and I would just withdraw.
- 20:00Daniel Moore: I mean this whole thing right.
- 20:01Daniel Moore: Here is a description of who I was at the beginning of our marriage and of course, some of that was in place because of emotional baggage I had coming out of my first marriage because of things that were not resolved from back.
- 20:14Daniel Moore: Then I carried that over into our marriage and then I allowed that to start happening again until I took control over that and we went through everything that we did to almost getting a divorce and really me opening up my reality of where I'm at in this relationship.
- 20:28Michelle Moore: Well and I think that goes on my part too, of being like, let's talk about it, just pushing things.
- 20:33Michelle Moore: I mean, I think both of us had that, like that issue.
- 20:36Michelle Moore: Yours wasn't, yours was specifically this, but mine was one of the other ones.
- 20:40Michelle Moore: And you know, communicating in a healthy manner is not like fucking you to get it out.
- 20:45Michelle Moore: And like you know and I think this comes back to your relationship with christ, you know, if you have a healthy relationship with christ, your marriage should exemplify that within your marriage.
- 21:00Michelle Moore: You know, if your relationship with God is like that, because you talk to God, you know, talk to your spouse, like you know he's your best friend and you guys are one, you remember.
- 21:10Daniel Moore: Yeah, so we need to make sure that when we do have these communications, that we don't hold things back and it takes a special place in your relationship to make that happen.
- 21:20Daniel Moore: Yeah, but that's the part of the relationship that needs to be nurtured in marriage.
- 21:24Daniel Moore: So the next one here is physical boundaries in marriage, and these involve respecting each other's personal space, comfort levels and bodily autonomy, even within the intimacy of a committed relationship.
- 21:44Daniel Moore: When you have these boundaries in place, they help foster trust, safety and mutual respect.
- 21:50Daniel Moore: So the first one here is personal space.
- 21:53Daniel Moore: One spouse may need alone time in a certain room to rest, pray or decompress.
- 21:57Daniel Moore: The other spouse respects that without interruption.
- 22:00Daniel Moore: So we talked a little bit about this, I think, in our last episode about how spouses should like to do the same things.
- 22:09Daniel Moore: That was a myth, that we busted last week?
- 22:11Michelle Moore: Definitely not true.
- 22:15Daniel Moore: You know, there's times that you might need to be taking a nap where I'm just full of life and ready to go ride bikes or hike or whatever.
- 22:24Daniel Moore: That's not really true.
- 22:27Michelle Moore: He does not do that.
- 22:28Michelle Moore: That's just an example.
- 22:29Michelle Moore: That's too much exertion for me, but there may be times, you know that you need to go off in prayer.
- 22:36Daniel Moore: I need to go off in or just some decompression time, and that's not a time to be physically busting in on somebody and physically changing the whole situation.
- 22:45Daniel Moore: No, we're going to do this.
- 22:46Daniel Moore: You know you don't need that time.
- 22:47Michelle Moore: I like your example, though Asking before entering the bathroom or bedroom if the door is closed.
- 22:54Daniel Moore: Yeah, and you know we've done that because, if you remember, there was times you know there's been times in our marriage where you've had some emotional stuff going on I guess is the best way to put this and you would go off to the room and close the door and then I would give you a little bit of time.
- 23:11Daniel Moore: Then I'd finally come up and say, hey, you know, can I come in?
- 23:13Daniel Moore: You know, come and talk to you.
- 23:15Daniel Moore: So that's kind of where that heads.
- 23:19Daniel Moore: You've got to be aware of your spouse's emotional state, what's going on in their life at that moment.
- 23:24Daniel Moore: And you know, just because you're married doesn't give you license just to bust in on them every time you think you feel like it, when they're going through something.
- 23:32Daniel Moore: You need to give them that time.
- 23:34Michelle Moore: And I think that for us, that's mostly for me, because you know, when you say emotional stuff I'm a female, so you know there's.
- 23:43Michelle Moore: I mean, I went through a time when my dad was murdered.
- 23:45Michelle Moore: I really had to take a lot of time, you know, to myself to figure things out.
- 23:52Daniel Moore: The second one is physical affection and intimacy.
- 23:54Daniel Moore: So read us that one.
- 23:55Michelle Moore: One spouse may not be comfortable with certain kinds of touch in public, such as kissing or long hugs.
- 24:01Michelle Moore: The other honors that preference.
- 24:03Michelle Moore: The example is discussing and agreeing on how and when physical intimacy happens, ensuring it's always mutual and never forced, even in marriage, and this is one thing that Dan and I we had to work on to ourselves.
- 24:18Michelle Moore: You know, I love to hold hands, I love to be right next to Daniel.
- 24:25Michelle Moore: I'm more of a touchy-feely I wouldn't say touchy-feely, but I like to have you by my side and I love that.
- 24:32Michelle Moore: And you know, at first you weren't used to that and so now it's just automatic.
- 24:39Michelle Moore: We just get right next to each other and hold hands or something like that, and we're more affectionate.
- 24:44Michelle Moore: But I do think that has to be.
- 24:46Michelle Moore: You have to understand if a partner is not ready for that and you need to talk to them and meet in the middle If that's not something they're comfortable with.
- 24:58Michelle Moore: You need to make sure that you're like hey, give them time, pray about it, you know.
- 25:02Daniel Moore: Yeah, yeah.
- 25:04Daniel Moore: It's something that some people just don't like to.
- 25:08Daniel Moore: They don't want people in their personal space sometimes.
- 25:12Michelle Moore: I don't like you in my face, am I right?
- 25:14Michelle Moore: Yeah, there's certain things.
- 25:15Michelle Moore: There's things like stay out of my face.
- 25:16Michelle Moore: I don't like it.
- 25:17Daniel Moore: There's definitely boundaries that needs to be in place there.
- 25:21Michelle Moore: Respect each other Right.
- 25:23Daniel Moore: Yeah.
- 25:23Daniel Moore: So the next couple here in physical boundaries is consent and comfort.
- 25:29Daniel Moore: Even in marriage, consent matters.
- 25:31Daniel Moore: One spouse may say I'm not in the mood for physical affection right now and the other respects that without guilt tripping yeah.
- 25:38Daniel Moore: So that kind of goes with this last one a little bit.
- 25:40Daniel Moore: So you know there's times that things are okay and times that things aren't okay, right, and make sure that you're, you know, aware of that and you respect that absolutely.
- 25:50Daniel Moore: The next one is appearance and body autonomy, where one spouse doesn't pressure the other to dress or look a certain way, recognizing that that their body is their own.
- 25:59Michelle Moore: So sorry hon, I like to dress you.
- 26:03Daniel Moore: But I don't mind that either.
- 26:05Michelle Moore: I'm reading that and I'm like is that really?
- 26:07Michelle Moore: I think that's toward me, you know.
- 26:10Daniel Moore: She's got the fashion thing and I don't, and I acknowledge that.
- 26:15Daniel Moore: So it's jeans and t-shirt, shorts and T-shirt for me.
- 26:20Michelle Moore: And he'll come out and I'm like it doesn't match.
- 26:23Michelle Moore: He's like what do you mean?
- 26:24Michelle Moore: Black on black?
- 26:24Michelle Moore: And I'm like no, it does not go together.
- 26:27Daniel Moore: Yeah, so I just, you know, let her dress me sometimes no big deal.
- 26:32Michelle Moore: Now I know why that one's in there, yeah.
- 26:36Daniel Moore: The next one is respecting boundaries with others and that's agreeing on what physical closeness with people outside the marriage, such as friends, coworkers et cetera, is appropriate, like hugging, touching or being alone with the opposite sex, and setting boundaries around those who enter your shared space.
- 26:54Daniel Moore: You know, like family staying over how long guests can visit things like that so that's another one there in physical.
- 27:01Daniel Moore: And you know, like family staying over how long guests can visit things like that so that's another one there in physical.
- 27:04Daniel Moore: And you know there's those people that are opposite sex friends that might not be super close friends but they just love to touch and hug everybody that they walk by.
- 27:11Daniel Moore: And people like that make me uncomfortable because they want to come up and they're talking, they're rubbing your back and they're patting you on the shoulder.
- 27:17Daniel Moore: You know it's like I've got.
- 27:19Daniel Moore: You know you're standing over, close to me and it's like this is not.
- 27:22Daniel Moore: This is awkward.
- 27:22Daniel Moore: You know it's like.
- 27:23Daniel Moore: You know people like that get into my space.
- 27:26Daniel Moore: Yes, but some people are OK with that kind of interaction with people that are friends and the spouses don't think nothing about it, but you just need to know where those boundaries are.
- 27:36Daniel Moore: Yeah, and make sure that there's no issue there going on.
- 27:38Michelle Moore: And it's funny because that's happened before and I can see Dan's face and it's like he's so, like this, is so awkward, and I'm over there just dying laughing because it's bothering him.
- 27:48Michelle Moore: And you know that person has no idea and he's just like what do we do?
- 27:52Michelle Moore: And his eyes are just I'm slowly walking sideways.
- 27:58Michelle Moore: Get your hand off of me Note to self if you ever see, daniel, I'm telling you guys, just go up and just tap him on the shoulder and just start running.
- 28:07Daniel Moore: Oh yeah, exactly Don't take her advice, the last one here in physical is handling conflict physically, and of course we know what that means Physical intimidation, blocking doorways, throwing stuff during arguments, picking your spouse up, throwing them at the wall.
- 28:26Daniel Moore: You know all that bad stuff that happens when fights take place.
- 28:29Michelle Moore: It's not healthy.
- 28:30Daniel Moore: It's not a healthy way to be, and especially you've got kids sitting there watching it, it makes it even worse.
- 28:43Daniel Moore: So the next one is spiritual boundaries, and each spouse maintains a personal relationship with God while also growing together spiritually.
- 28:52Daniel Moore: They involve respecting differences in beliefs, practices and spiritual pace, and ensuring that spiritual leadership or influence is not used to control or manipulate, and so the first couple here is respecting individuals walks with God, and so this may encompass something like one spouse prefers quiet time with God in the morning, while the other connects more during the evening, and they support each other's rhythms rather than forcing a shared routine, and you and I that is so an example that I get up around 530 each morning during the week to do some Bible reading and she gets up every once in a while but more often than not she does anything that she does more in the evenings and that kind of thing.
- 29:33Daniel Moore: That's when she functions better and see, I don't function as well in the evening.
- 29:37Daniel Moore: I feel like that if I get up early in the morning, that it's quieter and I can just retain things better as I read where.
- 29:44Daniel Moore: You're opposite of that, but we don't argue and fight over that.
- 29:47Michelle Moore: No, and I guess this is, you know, something that's bothered me, because I've always heard start your day with God, you know, start your day with Bible reading and stuff like that.
- 29:57Michelle Moore: And you know, know, I do pray in the morning but I don't start in my bible, and you know, sometimes that can really it bothers me, but you've, you know, you've always been good about assuring me that.
- 30:11Michelle Moore: Hey, you know you're different than me.
- 30:13Michelle Moore: This isn't the best way you learn and but for some of those people that really think, okay, this needs to be this way, just remember, your walk with God is your walk with God.
- 30:26Daniel Moore: Right, yeah, make sure that, regardless of what you both think about it, or what society may try to tell you, what culture may try to tell you the things that you do, that actually helps you grow in God and move forward in your walk with God.
- 30:39Daniel Moore: If something's working, just stick with it.
- 30:42Daniel Moore: Don't worry if it's in the morning or if it's in the evening, afternoon, it does not matter.
- 30:46Daniel Moore: The important thing is that you're carrying on the relationship with God like you should be, and you're growing.
- 30:52Michelle Moore: And I like the fact in the evening we both have books.
- 30:54Michelle Moore: When we go to bed, we both really we sit down and we just like read our books.
- 31:00Michelle Moore: Like you have a marriage book and I have a Christian book, and so we're just kind of taking our individual time and if I want to sleep, I sleep, if you want to, you know vice versa.
- 31:09Michelle Moore: And so we always respect each other when but I, I don't think we did when the very beginning of our marriage.
- 31:16Michelle Moore: I mean, this has come a long ways for us.
- 31:18Daniel Moore: Yeah, it has, and it's just things you learn as you go along.
- 31:22Daniel Moore: But it's best if you put it into play at the beginning.
- 31:24Michelle Moore: Yes.
- 31:25Daniel Moore: Just give each other their space when it comes to their God time and their quiet time.
- 31:30Michelle Moore: This is a good one.
- 31:31Daniel Moore: The next one is honoring differences in spiritual maturity and beliefs.
- 31:34Daniel Moore: Tell us about that one.
- 31:36Michelle Moore: One spouse is more spiritually mature or involved in a church leadership, but doesn't belittle or pressure the other to catch up.
- 31:43Michelle Moore: He put an example in this If spouses are from different denominations, they agree on core values while giving space for minor differences in expression or worship, and this is a really good one.
- 31:58Daniel Moore: I've got experience, yes, in this one.
- 32:00Michelle Moore: Yes, in both areas.
- 32:09Daniel Moore: Yes, like for both examples, I mean I think this is really good.
- 32:10Daniel Moore: Yeah, so you're going to have the spouse that when you go to church, that one's going to feel more led to serve in multiple areas where sometimes not all the time, the other spouse may only want to do one you know, like me, I'm only in one spot and and so well, you're in a couple actually I am, but we do marriage ministry?
- 32:28Michelle Moore: as well at church.
- 32:30Daniel Moore: But I do two, I guess, plus the marriage.
- 32:35Daniel Moore: So I do one more than what you do, but I don't ride you about that, or you don't ride me about that.
- 32:42Michelle Moore: I did, I'd punch you.
- 32:44Daniel Moore: Yeah, it's, you have to allow people.
- 32:46Daniel Moore: Some people are they just, they do well at serving, and others it's a stretch for them to do serving for whatever reasons.
- 32:54Michelle Moore: And Well, even having a deeper relationship with Christ, you know to where, like, if you are deeper in Christ than where I am.
- 33:03Michelle Moore: Yeah, you're not getting upset at me, you're letting me have my walk with God.
- 33:08Daniel Moore: Not pressure to catch up.
- 33:10Michelle Moore: Yeah, I really like that.
- 33:11Michelle Moore: That's really really good.
- 33:13Daniel Moore: Well, some I think some people can study the Bible well and they can really retain a lot from it where others struggle.
- 33:20Michelle Moore: That would be me.
- 33:21Daniel Moore: And you know there's no reason for you know I'm thankful for the gift God has given me and but I'm also thankful that he's gave me a good godly spouse like you, that, even though you may not get into that as deep as I do, or you know, you always tell me, like you can't, you don't retain that as easily, or whatever I have to write everything down.
- 33:41Daniel Moore: You have to write everything down.
- 33:42Daniel Moore: I respect that.
- 33:43Daniel Moore: You know I this isn't a hill to die on.
- 33:46Daniel Moore: Just be thankful your spouse is interested in God and wants to have a godly marriage, like you do, and wants to go to church with you, and you know, just be thankful that you cause.
- 33:57Daniel Moore: There's people out the other side of this where, if you're in different denominations I was actually in that with my first marriage and it didn't work and so you have to be careful with you.
- 34:07Daniel Moore: You get into the unequally yoked thing where it it can't fix itself.
- 34:12Michelle Moore: You guys didn't even have the same core values.
- 34:14Daniel Moore: They weren't.
- 34:14Daniel Moore: They were completely different, and so you have to be careful with who you mix and mingle yourself with, because if you get into something expecting it to be long term, it may not be because your differences are so bad that you can't.
- 34:27Daniel Moore: You can't have it anymore, and that's pretty much what happened with us.
- 34:31Daniel Moore: Our, our church lives were so different, because of the denominations that we were in, that we could not come to an agreement and it ended up pulling us both out of church.
- 34:41Daniel Moore: And so you don't want that to happen, and so you have to respect each other's spiritual maturity and belief differences within your marriages.
- 34:49Daniel Moore: There's just no way around that.
- 34:51Daniel Moore: The next one is avoiding spiritual manipulation, and I've seen this happen quite a few times where spouses let those scriptures at their other spouse to try to control their behavior.
- 35:02Daniel Moore: And we do this to our kids too.
- 35:04Daniel Moore: When you have kids in the family, this is something else that happens quite often.
- 35:09Daniel Moore: But you'll see spouses misquoting submit to your husband, you know, to silence disagreements or whatever.
- 35:16Daniel Moore: There's a lot of that's just one example, but there's a lot of you know marriages out there where the husbands are very dominating in the relationship and in order to justify what they're doing, they'll use scriptures like this to stay in domination, when that's not really what God meant.
- 35:34Daniel Moore: God meant for me and you to be equals.
- 35:36Daniel Moore: Yes, the husband is the head of the home, but that does not give me the license to throw at you.
- 35:46Daniel Moore: You know, when you do something that I don't appreciate or whatever, hey, the Bible says you submit to me, so you're going to do what I tell you to do.
- 35:49Daniel Moore: That's not what that means, you know what I'd tell you?
- 35:52Daniel Moore: You'd tell me to go jump in the lake.
- 35:54Michelle Moore: No, I'd tell you I'd punch you.
- 35:56Daniel Moore: After yeah, and then tell me to go jump in the lake.
- 36:00Daniel Moore: No, I wouldn't, I just forget she's got to be violent first and then she gets reactive.
- 36:05Michelle Moore: I like that punch in the face thing, and I've never punched him in the face, just saying no, she hasn't.
- 36:12Daniel Moore: But this is not a good thing to do.
- 36:14Michelle Moore: No.
- 36:15Daniel Moore: As far as taking scripture out of context and misquoting Scripture just to get your agenda within your relationship.
- 36:23Michelle Moore: And did you say the next example?
- 36:26Michelle Moore: Okay, go ahead, I like this one.
- 36:28Daniel Moore: The next one here in avoiding spiritual manipulation is not declaring.
- 36:31Daniel Moore: God told me we have to do this in a way that shuts down honest discussion or mutual decision making.
- 36:37Daniel Moore: That shuts down honest discussion or mutual decision-making because you and I both know that sometimes, regardless of how close we are to God and how much we go to church and how much we read our Bible, there's times that I might make a decision on something, or you might make a decision on something that me or you see differently, and so we have to step back for a minute and say okay, so is there more of me in this equation than God?
- 37:02Daniel Moore: Right, right, or is God really in this?
- 37:05Michelle Moore: And correct me if I'm wrong, and maybe this is something I'm just thinking in my head is if God told you to do something, if you have a relationship with Christ, wouldn't your wife kind of somewhat feel that way?
- 37:19Michelle Moore: There should be an agreement.
- 37:22Daniel Moore: When you have words from the Lord like that, it's good to have confirmation from other places and whether if that is your spouse or if it's just it can be from anything really, you could open the Bible or your scripture and it confirm what you feel in your spirit.
- 37:36Daniel Moore: Or a friend could say something, hear a message, you know sermon on the internet and it confirms that there's just different ways.
- 37:42Daniel Moore: But definitely if you're married, then your spouse probably needs to be the first one you need to bounce that off of, because if they're in tune with Christ and they have good discernment, then you should value what they have to say over this decision that you're making, because you think God told you to do that.
- 37:58Daniel Moore: After all, if I say that God told me to do something, who's going to get drug into that?
- 38:03Daniel Moore: Eventually you.
- 38:05Daniel Moore: So we have to make sure that both of us are on the same page with that and we both pray that through and we both have a piece, especially if it's a big decision, and we have to make sure that we both have peace in that and I remember I think it was Pastor Jimmy Evans he would talk about Karen, you know.
- 38:22Michelle Moore: He'd pray about stuff and he felt one way and then Karen would be praying and she'd come to him and say something and he'd be like, oh wow, yeah, she's right, you know, and I really like that and I mean I appreciate the just transparency that he spoke that, because it's like sometimes, you know whether it vice versa, you have to listen to that spouse and that open communication and the honest stuff has to be there in order for you guys to talk about that and don't just say God told me to do this.
- 38:54Michelle Moore: You know it needs to be prayed about as a couple, as one.
- 38:58Daniel Moore: Yeah, Don't over-spiritualize it.
- 39:00Daniel Moore: Yeah, you know, if you're in a discussion and you're getting tired of you know, if you're mentioning this to your spouse and your spouse keeps coming back with all the reasons you shouldn't be doing this and you're just you're getting exhausted in the communication and whatever you know, just don't go to this just to shut the conversation down.
- 39:17Daniel Moore: Well, God told me to do this and we're done Not talking about it anymore and that's not the way to handle that discussion.
- 39:24Michelle Moore: I always get nervous about when I think that, because I'm like okay, dan, can you pray with me about this?
- 39:29Michelle Moore: Because this is the way I feel and I mean, you know, I feel like God is speaking to me like this, and could you pray with me?
- 39:37Michelle Moore: And you know, trying to read through scripture and everything, and it is, it has that confirmation, you know.
- 39:43Daniel Moore: So the fourth one here on spiritual boundaries in marriage is personal versus shared spiritual practices.
- 39:50Daniel Moore: So here one spouse may want to fast or attend a retreat, the other supports it but doesn't feel obligated to join unless they feel personally led.
- 40:00Daniel Moore: The other example is one partner may journal their prayers or enjoy solitude with God, and that space is respected without invasion or judgment.
- 40:10Daniel Moore: And this was a big one, because there are times where I know for myself.
- 40:16Daniel Moore: When I grew up I always thought that, you know, of course we do our churchwide fast and we always have one or two of those per year at our church, and so at that point in time of course everybody that Phil's led to jumps on that bandwagon and goes ahead and does the fast.
- 40:33Daniel Moore: You know corporately.
- 40:35Daniel Moore: But there are times, even in marriages, where just individually, you may have something going on in your life that God speaks to you and say you know, let's fast and pray about this for a week or so, but your spouse may not have that same inclination you know, so that doesn't mean you don't do it, because if God's telling you to do a fast and to pray about something, you probably need to listen, because there's probably something going on there that needs to be taken care of in the long run, and that's what it's going to take.
- 41:02Daniel Moore: But the other spouse, if they don't feel led to be doing that fast with you, then they shouldn't feel forced to join that, because then they're not going to get nothing out of it.
- 41:11Daniel Moore: Because you go into a fast and you go into a time of prayer expecting that's the whole reason that you do that fast and pray You're expecting some answers, you're expecting some changes, you're expecting God to move in a mighty way.
- 41:24Daniel Moore: Well, if your spouse doesn't have that going on in their mind frame right at that moment, then they're just going along with you, along for the ride.
- 41:31Daniel Moore: They're not really getting anything out of that.
- 41:33Daniel Moore: And so don't force each other to participate in those things.
- 41:37Daniel Moore: Now, if you both feel led, go for it, you know.
- 41:40Daniel Moore: And then journaling is the same way.
- 41:43Daniel Moore: Michelle likes to journal more than I do.
- 41:46Michelle Moore: And I've actually I do, but I mean I think mostly now more since the Abide class.
- 41:53Michelle Moore: You know, listen to it and on the podcast Rise Up podcast you know they've had their classes on there and it's very.
- 42:02Michelle Moore: It helps you understand the Bible a lot more, and so I'm very thankful for that.
- 42:08Daniel Moore: Yeah, and then a couple more here on spiritual boundaries.
- 42:11Daniel Moore: The first one is church and ministry involvement, that's agreeing on how much time to commit to church service or ministry to avoid burnout or neglect of the family, and that's a big one.
- 42:20Daniel Moore: Yes burnout or neglect of the family, and that's a big one.
- 42:24Daniel Moore: Yes, if one spouse doesn't feel called to a certain ministry or role, the other doesn't force participation out of guilt or image management, and a good example of that would be well, the wife wants to serve in kids, so she drags her husband in there.
- 42:34Daniel Moore: Or the husband wants to serve in youth and drags the wife in there.
- 42:37Daniel Moore: And for a while I was on the prayer team at church.
- 42:40Daniel Moore: I wanted you to come down there and be part of that prayer team with me for the longest time, but you wouldn't.
- 42:44Daniel Moore: That's not what God called you to do, and so I went ahead and done what I felt like God wanted me to do for that season.
- 42:51Daniel Moore: And you've done something differently, but I never did put a guilt trip on you to get you down there.
- 42:57Daniel Moore: So that's kind of that part of that one.
- 42:59Daniel Moore: And then the last one here, on spiritual boundaries, is leading and submitting with love and mutual respect, and that's where a husband we're called to spiritual leadership in the home, but at the same time we talked about this just a while ago I seek your input and I value your spiritual insight rather than ruling over you.
- 43:17Daniel Moore: And then a wife who is strong in faith encourages her husband's growth gently, not by comparison or criticism, and that's another good one, because again that comes back to where you're misquoting things or you're gaslighting.
- 43:33Daniel Moore: I guess you could say You're manipulating by criticizing and trying to get your agenda in place by doing that and closing up this week's episode.
- 43:50Daniel Moore: The last one is relational boundaries in marriage, and these are guidelines that couples set to protect the health, trust and exclusivity of their relationship, especially in how they interact with others, such as friends, families, co-workers and with each other.
- 44:04Daniel Moore: So these boundaries help prevent emotional entanglements, unhealthy attachments and external interference in the marriage.
- 44:15Daniel Moore: So the first one here is opposite sex friendships, and it's probably the first one for a reason.
- 44:18Daniel Moore: This is a big one A spouse chooses not to have close one-on-one friendships with members of the opposite sex unless their spouse is present or aware, to avoid emotional affairs or suspicion.
- 44:27Daniel Moore: And then along with that is sharing text or conversations with transparency and not secrecy, especially when it involves someone who could be a potential temptation.
- 44:37Daniel Moore: So that's a big relational boundary that we all need to have in place in our marriages, and we did a full episode on that last fall in our marriage series.
- 44:48Daniel Moore: The next one is prioritizing the marriage over extended family.
- 44:52Daniel Moore: So give us that one.
- 44:53Michelle Moore: This one's hard.
- 44:55Daniel Moore: Yeah.
- 44:56Michelle Moore: A spouse sets a boundary with their parents by saying we'll discuss this as a couple and get back to you, instead of letting family make decisions for your marriage.
- 45:05Michelle Moore: We're protecting your spouse from disrespect by family members and not allowing in-laws to meddle in private marital issues.
- 45:15Daniel Moore: So, yeah, we've got an episode on that also, and actually that was actually the most popular episode in our marriage series.
- 45:24Daniel Moore: That was the one where we talked about ditching your parents it's, it's, it's hard it's a hard one especially, I think more for females.
- 45:34Michelle Moore: but then again there are times that boys are mama's boys and I can see where they would, you know, if they talk to their mom and the mom says something, then they take it back to the spouse.
- 45:47Michelle Moore: Or you know, even, as you know, myself I don't I mean I'm not now I don't listen to my parents, or I mean my mom, I do listen to her.
- 45:57Michelle Moore: Let me that's.
- 45:57Michelle Moore: That sounds so disrespectful.
- 45:59Michelle Moore: I do listen to her and I take heart, but we don't really discuss our marriage stuff or anything like that.
- 46:06Michelle Moore: I mean, occasionally we will, but you know, I think she's learned over the years we're going to do what we want to do and she trusts us that you know God's leading us in the right direction.
- 46:16Michelle Moore: But back when we first got married, I mean that was tough, you know they didn't like you, I mean I think tough.
- 46:22Michelle Moore: You know they didn't like you.
- 46:23Michelle Moore: Yeah, I mean, I think they liked you, but they didn't like you.
- 46:25Daniel Moore: Yeah.
- 46:25Michelle Moore: They didn't like the way.
- 46:26Daniel Moore: I did certain things and got me a nickname Sergeant Dan.
- 46:31Daniel Moore: Sergeant Dan, yeah.
- 46:33Michelle Moore: But you know, looking back at it, our relationship wasn't healthy and you know, your relationship with the kids was not handled appropriately either.
- 46:44Michelle Moore: I mean, there were so many things that were wrong and you know, and I'm so thankful for forgiveness because you know we went to our children, we've asked for forgiveness, you know, and you know my dad's not here, but I know no fact he loved you so much and my mom loves you, I mean and I look at it now things are so different, but people need to make sure that they set their boundaries with the parents.
- 47:08Michelle Moore: You know your parents don't rule you.
- 47:09Michelle Moore: You and your spouse come together and make decisions for God and you know it's not you, your husband or you.
- 47:18Michelle Moore: You know your wife and your husband, whatever and your parents.
- 47:22Michelle Moore: Yeah, it are you, your parents.
- 47:23Michelle Moore: Yeah, it's either you and me.
- 47:26Daniel Moore: Yeah, we always come back to that scripture in Genesis where the man cleaves to his wife, leaves his parents and they become one.
- 47:32Daniel Moore: They don't become four.
- 47:33Daniel Moore: So make sure you shed the other two off.
- 47:36Daniel Moore: That's biblical.
- 47:38Daniel Moore: I love it.
- 47:39Daniel Moore: That's not, you know, overusing a scripture in a wrong form or fashion.
- 47:44Daniel Moore: That's actually using it the way it should be.
- 47:46Michelle Moore: So yeah, so good.
- 47:48Daniel Moore: They're there for support, if needed, for some help, you know, during some bad times, some good examples they can give you or whatever.
- 47:58Michelle Moore: Well, if I go back to the podcast that we did with Scotty and Vicki, vicki will talk about her father and how he talked to her, about Scotty, you know, and he was a praying man and so you know sometimes that advice from your parents, because you know they're godly parents you have to step back and pray about it and listen.
- 48:18Daniel Moore: Yeah.
- 48:18Daniel Moore: The next one is handling friendships when it comes to relationship boundaries, limiting time with friends who are bad influences on the marriage, such as those who encourage gossip, negativity about spouses or unfaithfulness, and avoid venting about your spouse to friends, especially of the opposite sex, which can lead to emotional disconnection from your marriage.
- 48:39Daniel Moore: So that one there's pretty self-explanatory.
- 48:42Daniel Moore: You know, whoever you run around, you're going to end up being like.
- 48:45Michelle Moore: So thankful for godly friendships.
- 48:47Daniel Moore: Yes, you've got to make sure you keep those friendships within your marriages and individually.
- 48:51Daniel Moore: Both Make sure those are good friendships.
- 48:54Michelle Moore: They encourage you, you know.
- 48:56Daniel Moore: Yeah, that negativity and all that other stuff needs to not even be a part of your relationship.
- 49:01Daniel Moore: And then protecting time together.
- 49:03Daniel Moore: That's setting boundaries around work hours, social events or digital devices so quality time as a couple isn't consistently neglected.
- 49:10Daniel Moore: And then also turning down social limitations if they conflict with planned date nights or family time.
- 49:16Michelle Moore: That's really hard.
- 49:18Daniel Moore: It is.
- 49:18Michelle Moore: It is, I think that's even you know, sometimes just for you, and I, I mean, I feel I've told him this morning, I'm like it's go, go, go go, it's non-stop, and he's like it keeps us young and I'm like it exhausted me.
- 49:31Michelle Moore: You know, it's like you know, but we love it, you know, and it's you do have to protect that and you know, making sure that we still have time together.
- 49:43Daniel Moore: Yeah, the next one here is social media and online boundaries, and that kind of goes along with this last one that we just went through Agreeing not to post about marital struggles or arguments online.
- 49:54Daniel Moore: That's something that some people really like to do Air their baggage out there for the whole world to see, instead of fixing it internally first and not posting none of that stuff, and then being open with passwords or social activity to foster trust, while still respecting privacy and not secrecy.
- 50:12Daniel Moore: And I'm telling you this is a big one.
- 50:13Daniel Moore: People may disagree with me on this, but I think that when you have passwords on your devices, your spouse should know what they are.
- 50:20Michelle Moore: Absolutely.
- 50:21Daniel Moore: I do not think there's any excuse whatsoever at any given moment or time where your spouse should not be allowed to know what those passwords are, unless those devices are work-related, because I know sometimes where you work.
- 50:34Daniel Moore: If they give you a phone or something like that, they may not want other people to know that stuff for the integrity of the company.
- 50:42Daniel Moore: So then you're going to have to use some discretion at that point, of course, and of course a lot of times those companies have things on those devices anyway to see if you're doing what you're doing.
- 50:54Daniel Moore: So I can.
- 50:54Daniel Moore: I understand if that's a situation because that is true, that that happens.
- 50:58Daniel Moore: But if it's your personal devices, your personal, you know chat rooms, whatever you get into these days, you know your social media and all that.
- 51:07Daniel Moore: Your spouse should know what those passwords are.
- 51:10Daniel Moore: That's just part of being open with each other and not fostering any of those bad thoughts and those.
- 51:16Daniel Moore: You know what's going on.
- 51:18Daniel Moore: You know, is there something hiding?
- 51:20Daniel Moore: They're hiding behind my back For some reason.
- 51:22Daniel Moore: I can't have this password.
- 51:24Daniel Moore: It just opens up that door and then problems start happening.
- 51:29Daniel Moore: So next one is conflict and privacy boundaries, and that's agreeing not to argue or criticize one another in front of others, especially children, friends or family, keeping certain disagreements private instead of sharing them with outsiders, unless you're seeking trusted counsel or therapy, and I think you and I have always done really well with that, even whenever we were having our problems, our kids didn't really know until you were moving out.
- 51:53Daniel Moore: I mean, whether that was right or wrong, who knows?
- 51:56Daniel Moore: But they definitely.
- 51:59Daniel Moore: You know we didn't let them see a lot of that stuff that was going on behind closed doors.
- 52:03Daniel Moore: Now you did have friends that you spoke to and I did too about those things that we shouldn't have.
- 52:10Daniel Moore: But as far as just openly criticizing just to everybody and that kind of thing, that's just not something you should do.
- 52:16Daniel Moore: And then the last one, I share that one with us emotional intimacy boundaries.
- 52:21Michelle Moore: Not seeking emotional support or deep connection from someone outside the marriage.
- 52:26Michelle Moore: That should be reserved for your spouse.
- 52:28Michelle Moore: Or telling a friend or co-worker I'm not comfortable talking about that.
- 52:33Michelle Moore: Those are things I only share with my spouse.
- 52:35Michelle Moore: Yeah, I really like that because we both I mean, we've both been through that, but I do feel like that it should be only shared with your spouse.
- 52:47Daniel Moore: Yeah, yeah, there's certain things that just shouldn't be common knowledge and it's things that need to be kept between the two of you and when you can actually make that happen, then it sets up that point of trust and it sets up that safe space where you know that the both of you can talk about things and not get out there to people that shouldn't be, you know, talking about it or knowing about it.
- 53:12Daniel Moore: So that's the definition of boundaries and why we want to talk about boundaries in marriage, and that's emotional, physical, spiritual and relational.
- 53:20Daniel Moore: So next week on this podcast, we're going to get back into this boundary discussion and we're going to talk about misconceptions about boundaries and, believe it or not, there's a lot of things out there that people think about boundaries that aren't really true.
- 53:34Daniel Moore: They have their reasons for thinking why boundaries are put into place when really that's not why they're put into place.
- 53:40Daniel Moore: So we're going to debunk some of that next week and get a little bit deeper into this discussion on biblical boundaries in marriage.
- 53:47Daniel Moore: But that's going to be all for this week and just make sure that you subscribe so that you don't miss that episode.
- 53:54Daniel Moore: I'm Daniel Moore and my wife, Michelle, has been sitting here, with you this week.
- 53:57Daniel Moore: Thank you, guys, for listening.
- 53:59Daniel Moore: This show wouldn't be possible without you.
- 54:00Daniel Moore: If you're a fan of the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, or if you'd like to help us with just a few seconds to give us a five-star click, and please subscribe to your favorite platform, and the links for those are in the show notes.
- 54:12Daniel Moore: Well, that's all for this week, and we pray that your marriage is stronger and your walk with God is closer after this episode.
- 54:19Daniel Moore: This is an extension of Connecting the Gap Ministries, and we pray you have a blessed week.
- 54:24Aria: You've been listening to Connecting the Gap podcast.
- 54:26Aria: In this world, there are many disconnects that cause chaos in our lives.
- 54:30Aria: This podcast is birthed from the desire to share hope and restoration of the power of the gospel by being transparent and open in our biblical walk with God.
- 54:38Aria: Each week, we take a few moments as we navigate God's Word and peer into other people's testimonies and encourage each other to connect the gap.
- 54:45Aria: We upload a new audio podcast every Thursday and a video version of it on YouTube and Rumble.
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- 55:13Aria: This is a production of Connecting the Gap Ministries.