November 6, 2025
Planting the Seeds of Peace in Marriage
Peace isn’t just a seed. It’s a strategy. It’s strength. It’s Spirit. And peace, just might be the generational tree where your legacy rests.
Articles for tag: Rudy Hagood
September 3, 2025
Do You Honor Your Commitments? The Sacred Bond of Covenant
A relationship can come and go, like changing social media statuses. A covenant, on the other hand, is a binding promise, sealed with reverence and marked by sacrifice.
The Parent’s Post: Stewarding Adult Children with Grace, Grit, and Snacks
As parents, our job is to do our best and trust God with the rest. We have never been perfect, but God has always been perfect. Like you, we love our children and grandchildren deeply, but God loves them even more. And his love is perfect.
March 2, 2025
From Conflict to Connection: Handing Over the Anger in Our Marriages
How anger is handled can either damage or strengthen intimacy in marriage. Thoughtfully and prayerfully approaching anger leads us to deeper understanding, trust, and connection.
September 1, 2024
Transformative Fire: Prayer’s Impact on Marriage, Mission, and Ministry
Sadly, prayer is often little more than a formality many people practice out of tradition. But when we look closely at Jesus’ model prayer in Luke 11:1-4, we discover that prayer is much more than form; it is a dynamic and transformative fire.
July 1, 2024
I’m Next, I’m Now, I’m Ready: Embracing the Call to Co-Parent with the Divine
When it comes to our children, we are merely co-parents in God’s divine mission. . . .
March 1, 2024
Marriage Happens Every Day!
The Significance of Happenings Leading to Happiness
January 1, 2024
The Practice and Art of Surprise: Marriage Practitioners
By Rudy Hagood My wife, the unbelievably beautiful Osharye, recently shared an article titled, “We’re Talking About (Marriage) Practice.” In it, she reminded us of the cultural phenomenon from 2002 when basketball star Allen Iverson famously said, “We’re talking about practice . . . not a game . . . we’re talking about practice.” (If you haven’t read it, you might enjoy doing so before reading this.) Osharye’s words got me to thinking about the areas of our marriages that are underdeveloped due to a lack of, well, practice. One area where we could become proficient is in the art
July 1, 2023
No Perfect Parents . . . Just Real Ones
By Rudy Hagood We all know that parenting our kids is hard. Yet, I think we forget that when we were kids, we were just as hard on our parents! I want to speak with you parent-to-parent. Osharye and I are not perfect parents, and our kids are not perfect, and as much as it pains me to say it in print, our grandkids—even though they are perfect to us—are not perfect either. (Ouch, that last admission hurt!) So, let us find comfort in our perfect heavenly Father, who heals and covers our many imperfections! Paul wrote, “For this reason
May 1, 2023
Unity: God’s Beautiful Original Intent for Marriage
By Rudy Hagood God desires so much more for our marriages than just staying together. God’s original intent for marriage is found way back in Genesis—before sin came into the world, and well before “honey-do” lists and such sayings as “happy wife, happy life.” The secret sauce of Christian marital union is the power of God binding us together in an intimate union that includes Yahweh. And when two become one, the One (God) empowers the two. Marital unity is restoration of the paradise God created in the beginning. It’s part of the reconciling work of God. It is the
March 1, 2023
Good + Grace = Great (Marriages)
By Rudy and Osharye Hagood There is something wonderful about a perfect gift. When God created vegetation, day and night, wild animals, crawling things, he declared each of those things to be “good.” Yet God outdid himself when he gave us a spouse. God even got an “amen” from Adam, who said, “Now this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). In his own image, male and female, God created them, giving them dominion (care and management of, concern for, and rule over the earth), and God declared it “very good.” Husbands and wives are
November 1, 2022
God’s Love Language in Our Unions
By Rudy Hagood Have you ever considered how unthinkable it is that we have intimacy with the Spirit of God within our marital unions? The prophet Malachi asked this simple rhetorical question: “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?” (Malachi 2:15, English Standard Version). Your marriage is not simply between two people, but three, since it includes the third person of the godhead. For this reason, I want to talk about the health of our marriages by talking about how we engage God. Since our marital unions consist of three people, knowing
September 1, 2022
Your Spouse Is Not the Main Thing
By Rudy Hagood I can hear it like I’m still sitting in her living room. My mother-in-law, Mama D., was saying, “Keep the main thang, the main thang!” Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord” (English Standard Version). Well, bless the name of the Lord and let the church say Amen! Yet, a word of caution for both husbands and wives: Your spouse is not the main thang! Yes, we should be “very married.” Yes, the best gift we can give our kids is a great marriage. And yes,
July 1, 2022
Very Married: The Gift to the Divine Gift
By Rudy Hagood (with Osharye Hagood) Long before Jeff Bezos launched Amazon, God was sending precious gift packages from heaven all over the globe. God delivers sparks of life we call children. Kids are “divine gifts” of the breath of life delivered to the living. Psalm 127:3 says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward” (English Standard Version). Wow, what an unthinkable gift! In my gratitude, I want to be a blessing to God, the gift-giver, while also striving to give the best gift I possibly can to my kids. Yet, what
March 1, 2022
Authentic Marriage: The Relationship Between Intimacy and Conflict
Our definition of marital authenticity is “the pursuit of marriage as it existed before the fall while also acknowledging that we, as individuals, are flawed and fallen.” We live in a culture that models and promotes inauthentic relationships. The inability to be authentic causes many marriage issues and creates anemic intimacy in our unions. As a result, issues fester and eventually explode. We believe deep relationship comes from learning to navigate conflict and tension. Compliments matter as much as conflict, but in this article we will focus on the correlation between intimacy and conflict. When a couple leaves intimacy and
