What if your marriage had a game plan as intentional as a championship team?

In this episode, Brad talks with George and Tondra Gregory, NFL chaplains and founders of Journey for Life, who have spent years walking with professional athletes, coaches, and couples who want to build marriages that reflect Christ. They share how serving NFL teams opened unexpected doors for ministry, how success can become either a platform or an idol, and why many husbands settle for “average” when God calls them to something far greater.

George and Tondra break down the key components of a winning “marriage game plan”: knowing you’re on the same team, identifying the opponents of your marriage, setting shared goals, creating rhythms of intentionality, and refusing to coast. They also challenge men specifically with a powerful question: Why would you want an average marriage when you serve the greatest of all time?

If you’ve ever drifted, settled, or assumed “we’re fine,” this conversation will push and inspire you.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more couples discover the hope of a grace-filled marriage.

• Journey for Life – https://journeyforlife.com

🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• Why “average” marriages are actually harmful, not neutral
• How NFL athletes approach growth — and what couples can learn from them
• Why intentionality is essential: nothing grows by accident
• How to build a shared vision and “game plan” for your marriage
• Identifying the true opponents of your marriage
• Why success can become an idol or a platform
• Why husbands must take ownership instead of settling for “we’re fine”


LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING??
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
📌 Facebook: facebook.com/gracemarriage
📌 Instagram: instagram.com/gracemarriage
📌 YouTube: youtube.com/@grace_marriage

Why do we keep doing the things in marriage we know we don’t want to do? In this episode, Brad sits down with Ron and Nan Deal to unpack the core concepts behind their new book The Mindful Marriage—a practical, accessible tool built on decades of clinical marriage therapy work from Dr. Terry Hargrave.

Ron and Nan explain what “dysregulation” actually is, why your brain reacts before you can think, and why couples get stuck in repeating patterns of blame, shame, control, and escape. They share how the cycle forms, how it fueled their own marriage struggles, and how learning to map their “pain cycle” and “peace cycle” changed everything.

This conversation is loaded with insight, neuroscience, honesty, and hope. If you’ve ever wondered “Why do I keep reacting like this," this episode could be a breakthrough.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more couples discover the hope of a grace-filled marriage.

• Blended & Blessed – https://blendedandblessed.com
• Ron Deal’s Resources – https://rondeal.org
• Grace Marriage – https://gracemarriage.com


🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• What “dysregulation” really means — and why your brain shuts off in conflict
• The four predictable responses: blame, shame, control, escape
• How triggers form and why they happen in nanoseconds
• The “pain cycle” vs. the “peace cycle” in marriage
• Why your spouse can’t heal your pain — and why that’s actually freeing
• How to move from emotional reactivity to intentional, Christ-centered responses
• Practical steps to rewiring your brain toward love, peace, patience, and self-control


📚 KEY VERSES
📖 Romans 7:15 “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
📖 Romans 6:14 “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
📖 Matthew 7:3 “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
📖 Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”


LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING??
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
📌 Facebook: facebook.com/gracemarriage
📌 Instagram: instagram.com/gracemarriage
📌 YouTube: youtube.com/@grace_marriage

Most couples think they have a game plan for marriage… until life exposes that they actually don’t. NFL chaplains George & Tondra Gregory join Brad to reveal why doing nothing is still a “game plan” (even though it's a terrible one) and how intentional, Christ-centered strategy can completely transform your relationship.

If your marriage feels “fine but not beautiful,” this conversation gives you the practical steps (and spiritual framework) to change that.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more couples discover the hope of a grace-filled marriage.

• Journey for Life – https://journeyforlife.com


🔑 KEY IDEAS:
• Doing nothing is a game plan...just not a winning one.
• Assumptions are one of the biggest threats to unity.
• Professional athletes never settle for average...neither should spouses.
• Your marriage won’t grow by accident. It grows by intentionality.
• Sanctification and marriage health go hand-in-hand.
• You find life by giving your life away (especially in marriage).
• Complacency is the enemy of beauty in marriage.

📚 KEY VERSES:
📖 Ephesians 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
📖 Matthew 16:25 - For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
📖 Matthew 7:3–5 - Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
📖 Matthew 13:22 - As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING??
✅ Subscribe & Share – Help us spread the message of grace-based marriage by subscribing to the Grace Marriage Podcast and sharing this episode with friends or family.
✅ Join Grace Marriage – Ready to invest in your marriage? Visit GraceMarriage.com to learn how proactive marriage care can transform your relationship.
✅ Leave a Review – Your feedback helps us reach more couples who need encouragement.

FOLLOW US:
📌 Facebook: facebook.com/gracemarriage
📌 Instagram: instagram.com/gracemarriage
📌 YouTube: youtube.com/@grace_marriage