As we are writing this article, we are preparing for as milestone in our life as a couple. LifeWay Publishers is flying a team out to our home town of San Diego to film Bill and me to create a 7 week, small-group, DVD-driven marriage curriculum from our best selling book, Men are like Waffles, Women are like Spaghetti. We are incredibly humble by this wonderful opportunity and extremely excited because it has been our goal as a couple to have our love be a light from the moment we said, "I Do."

When big, breakthrough moments like this happen, it's natural to stop, ponder and look back to the steps that created the path to such an incredible blessing. If you retraced our steps, one of the major stepping stones included marking our 25th anniversary in a world with rising divorce rates. Before that, we remember choosing to navigate midlife by tangibly supporting each other’s dreams, and prior to that, we remember many days of just choosing to love each other to the best our abilities.

The Power of Prayer

I remember one particularly pivotal time years ago -- kneeling together at the end of a hotel bed in Eugene, Oregon just prior to a meeting with Harvest House Publishers. What sticks out to us in that memory is our prayer -- it wasn’t so much for fame, success or even money (which on a small church pastor's salary would have been a legitimate prayer), but instead we prayed God would continue to make our lives a light so that some might come to know Jesus because of the love they could see in our relationship. Looking back, we realize prayer has been integral to each milestone. Even before we said "I Do" at the alter, we remember praying that God would help us live individual lives of integrity and date in a way that honored God. As far back as I can remember in our relationship, we made it a goal to use our time, talent, and treasure to somehow team with others to build marriages and families and lower divorce and distress. This filming marks the answer to decades of prayers each night before Bill and I drifted off to sleep.

A Life-long Love

What about your and your spouse? What are your hopes, dreams and goals as a couple? What types of goals does a couple need to actively set in order to maximize achievement without eliminating intimacy? In Men are like Waffles, Women are like Spaghetti, we share the key "steps" a couple needs in order to maintain a healthy love and life. We have discovered it is helpful to write goals in four major life areas. You’ll want to develop:

Your Spiritual Life

Your Team

Your Energy

Your Productivity