Marriage Tuneup - Part 3 - Love
Part 3 of the Marriage Tune-Up series turns to love itself - not as a static feeling but as something active that must keep growing, or else quietly fade into imbalance, resentment and distance. Real growth begins with humility: the willingness to face our own blind spots before naming our partner's, and to receive hard feedback (as Dr John Gottman models with his notebook) through reflection rather than reaction. Drawing on the early Marist founders - holy yet unfinished — and on Saint Paul's contrast between the flesh and the Spirit, the entry uses Richard Rohr's idea of the 'false self' to show how the ego we build from our roles, pride and reputation rarely surrenders except through Rohr's two great paths of transformation: great suffering and great love. True love, the kind that lays itself down for another, calls us to let that false self go - but first, many of us need to be healed, which is where Part 4 will lead.