I try to drop a course every few weeks on Life Reframe. Typically they correspond with whatever the topic or theme is that I've been speaking about on social media and in my blog. Please let me know what specific topics you would like me to create courses for on here. Depending on the amount of time it takes me to create it, there may be a cost for you to take the course once it's uploaded. But this never exceeds $20. I look forward to hearing from you all. Thanks. --Dr. Dave

Marriage will have difficult seasons. Two people can love God, love each other, and still face circumstances that stretch them beyond anything they expected. But there is a difference we need to talk about more honestly: suffering with your spouse is different from suffering because of your spouse. That distinction matters, especially for the wife who keeps wondering whether being faithful means continuing to absorb whatever her husband chooses to do. When You Face Hardship Together Suffering with your spouse may mean walking through illness, grieving someone you love, losing a job, or caring for an aging parent. Neither of you would have chosen the circumstances, but you are trying to carry them together. You may get tired. You may misunderstand each other. You may need to apologize and begin again. Yet there is a willingness to listen, share responsibility, and care about what the other person is experiencing. The hardship is real, but so is the companionship. Sometimes that sounds like, “I don’t know how we’re going to get through this, but I want to understand what you need from me.” That is part of loving each other through a difficult season. When Someone's Choices Become the Source of Your Pain Something different is happening when your suffering repeatedly comes from your spouse’s dishonesty, humiliation, intimidation, betrayal, or attempts to control you. You bring up something that hurt you, and the conversation becomes a trial about your attitude. You ask for emotional connection and are told you expect too much. You express a different opinion and spend the evening managing his reaction. Eventually, you learn to keep things to yourself because honesty has become too costly. That deserves more attention than, “Every marriage has problems.” Every marriage does have problems. But a pattern in which one person causes harm and the other person is expected to absorb it requires truth, accountability, and change. Keeping Things Quiet Is Not the Same as Creating Peace

My new book -- The 5 Life Languages: A New Way to Understand Yourself and Others -- launched just a month ago, and has been doing really well on Amazon. I'd love for each of you to order one, then post on here what God might be showing you. It's just $15.99. If you're not familiar with it, here's kinda the run down directly from the Amazon listing: Two people. Same words. Completely different meanings. It happens at dinner tables, in marriages, and between parents and children. It happens in churches, workplaces, and friendships. And it quietly breaks hearts every single day. Licensed Christian counselor David Ralston, PhD has watched it unfold across thousands of sessions: relationships crumbling not from lack of love, but from lack of understanding. The 5 Life Languages(R) is his answer, a practical biblical framework that stands apart from ordinary communication books. Beneath every conversation lives a longing: to be enough, to matter, to be seen, to belong, to find peace. These five longings are the five Life Languages. When you learn yours, and theirs, frustration turns to empathy, conflict becomes connection, and the people who once drained you begin to bring life. You will meet real people in these pages: the wife waiting in her date-night outfit for a husband who misread one text, the perfectionist who cannot rest, the helper who quietly disappears. And in their stories, you will recognize your own. This book will help you: - Identify your Life Language with the built-in Self-Assessment - Understand why your spouse, children, and friends respond so differently - Apply insights worthy of the finest christian marriage books to everyday moments - Move beyond the surface fixes of typical communication skills books - Break patterns of perfectionism, people-pleasing, and quiet withdrawal - Build the connection described in books on healthy relationships, anchored in grace

Whose voice do you hear when you think about who you are—the person who criticized you, the relationship that left you feeling inadequate, or the mistakes you still hold against yourself? Those experiences matter. But they don’t get the final word about your worth. I’ve added a new free course to Life Reframe: My Identity in Christ—See Yourself Through God’s Eyes. Through five practical, Scripture-based lessons, we’ll explore how to recognize the messages you’ve carried, receive what God says about you, and let that truth shape your everyday life and relationships. Each lesson includes reflection questions, practical application, and prayer. You’ll also find a downloadable companion packet to keep. Go to the Classroom tab, open “My Identity in Christ,” and begin with “Start Here: About This Course.” —Dr. Dave

What’s one word you hope will describe how you see yourself as you grow? Share it below.