Elephant in the bedroom

Hi everyone – I’m Matt Anderson, the Groups Pastor here at Eagle Brook.  I want to preface this by saying my wife Sally was more than a bit apprehensive when she heard I would be blogging on the elephant in the bedroom!  And for good reason – the truth is that sexual intimacy is the deepest, most personal level of interaction and intimacy that God has given us as humans.  And God created it to be a very healthy, satisfying, and necessary component of the marriage relationship.  But the fact is that most of us (myself included) have found that having a satisfying and healthy sex life can be easier said than done.  In reality, it can be a struggle for husbands and wives to really talk openly and honestly about sex and work through the issues that can prevent us from experiencing true intimacy.   

For my wife and I, we’ve realized that our opposite schedules can sometimes hinder the intimacy in our marriage.  For others, it could possibly be an exhausting pace of life or the changing dynamics when kids enter the picture.  So to lead into this weekend’s message, I’d love to throw the question out there to all of you – without being too personal, what barriers have you seen prevent you from experiencing  a fully satisfying sex life in your marriage?  Also, understand that any comments you leave will be completely anonymous.

Elephant in the family room

Hey everyone.  It’s Tyler again welcoming you to the EBC blog.  I hope each of you had the chance to make it to church this weekend.  It was a “don’t miss” message by Bob that kicked off the “There’s an Elephant in the Room” message series by talking about the elephant in the family room.  I’m sure you could tell that this topic is right in Bob’s wheel house as his passion and desire for families to be healthy is through the roof.  As we prayed together before the services last night, our prayer was that families would either begin or continue to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and strength.  (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)  But then Bob took this a step further in challenging parents to step up to the plate by training up and impressing “non-negotiable” values within their family on a daily basis.  The reality is that kids are forming their own values from what they see going on in our culture, and will continue to do so unless they receive them from their parents.  One of my favorite quotes was “parents need to parent.”  This received applause from the crowd attending.  Now if we could just get more parents to actually do that!

So, in an effort to help other families, we would love to hear from you.  First, what are some of the non-negotiable values that you have put in place in your home?  And second, what things do you feel you need to stop doing so you can spend more quality time (time where you aren’t exhausted, or ‘iritable’ as Bob mentioned) with your family?

Tyler Gregory
Executive Director of Ministry

What is an “elephant in a room?”

What a weird phrase…”elephant in the room.”  You have probably heard this phrase before, but what does it really mean?  Well, if your family, friends, and relationships are like mine, there seems to always be some common relational problems and issues that are on everyone’s mind but we choose to ignore.  These would be examples of obvious “elephant in the room” things that we want to help get real solutions for by taking a look at what God has to say about them.

Over the next six weeks, we are going to help you do just that by providing this blog as an avenue to discuss, wrestle, and seek out answers to your relational tensions.  This blog is a group effort supported by our various ministry areas.  You will see several guest bloggers from the Eagle Brook pastoral staff jump in and help to provide some expertise around various topics.  Each week, there will be posts around areas like marriage, parenting, sex, and other relational issues.  We invite you to join the conversation!

Here is a question to get us going: What is an elephant in the room that you are dealing with?

Thanks for checking out this blog and we look forward to the discussion in the coming weeks!

Tyler Gregory
Executive Director of Ministry