What's the forecast for your marriage? Marriages are as variable as the weather, and every marriage has a climate. Some are chilly and lack intimacy. Others are stormy and filled with conflict. But while the weather outdoors is beyond our control,the communication climates within our homes can be changed--for the better.Communication specialist Tim Muehlhoff offers simple strategies for improving the climate of a marriage. Our individual words and actions always take place within an overallatmosphere of expectations. Without a healthy climate of trust, we are prone to miscommunication and misunderstanding. Muehlhoff shows how to take an accurate climate reading of a relationship and explains what causes climates of poor communication.With current research on marital communication, listening skills, empathy and conflict resolution, Marriage Forecasting provides practical ways for couples to rebuild a warm relational climate.Don't just talk about the weather. Break the cold front, clear the fog, and change the extended outlook for your marriage.



Dan B. Allender (PhD, counseling psychology, Michigan State University) is professor of counseling at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He taught previously at Grace Theological Seminary and Colorado Christian University. A speaker and writer, his books include The Healing Path, To Be Told, How Children Raise Parents, The Wounded Heart and Leading with a Limp. With Tremper Longman, he wrote Bold Love, Cry of the Soul, Intimate Allies and the IntimateMarriage Bible studies.







Tim Muehlhoff (PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) is professor of communication at Biola University in La Mirada, California, where he teaches classes in family communication, interpersonal communication, persuasion, and gender. Tim is senior director of the Winsome Conviction Project. His books include I Beg to Differ, Eyes to See, and Winsome Persuasion.



Foreward by Dan Allender

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 What Are Communication Climates?

2 Environmental Press: Why Marriage Can Be a Struggle

3 Improving Your Communication Climate

4 Strengthening Trust in Your Climate

5 Talking Your Way into a Supportive Climate

6 Taking a Reading of Your Marriage

7 Calling a Truce

8 Changing How We View Conflict

9 Seven Principles for Making Disagreements Productive

10 The Necessity of Forgiveness

11 Hurricane Warnings: When Conflict Turns to Abuse

12 Our Communication Climate with God and Why It Means Everything

Epilogue

Resources

Notes

Name and Subject Index

Scripture Index