This week we have a special holiday treat for you! Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife joins us for a very special Halloween themed interview on "Overcoming the FEAR of Intimacy." She is a relationship and sexuality coach with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology who teaches LDS couples and individuals how to strengthen their relationships, overcome relational and […]

Remarriage is typically preceded by a process of relationship loss recovery, reentering the dating world, choosing to commit to a new person and ultimately create a new family and a new life. So what's the recipe? If you have consumed much of the material we produce at LILY, you know we aren't huge fans of […]

There are many important benefits to being bold and confident enough to be straightforward and say "I like you." In order to BE more than friends means doing something to allow for that option.  The reason it is bold to confess your feelings is the risk that your friend may not feel the same way. […]

1-23-23 was the fifth anniversary of my third first kiss with the woman who, four months later, became my wife. You might be asking how a kiss could be a “first kiss” if it was “third.” If you’ve read my book, Intentional Courtship, you know that my relationship with Cathy had its ups and downs over […]

For many over age 30 and not married or in a promising relationship, the holidays can be a desperately lonely time. You may look at others with spouses and children and watch them decorating homes and yards for the holidays and feel a longing ache. For those who are divorced, the holidays can be a […]

There comes a crossroads moment in every dating relationship where the relationship needs to become exclusive and move toward marriage or transition to friendship and discontinue dating each other. These are the most difficult decisions we face in dating. Each person will have his or her own set of considerations that are most important in […]

Cathy and I broke up twice during our dating relationship. The first time was only for a few weeks. But after we started seeing each other again, it took a little time to share our second first kiss. The second time we broke up lasted over a year; when I wrote Cathy a letter asking […]

December 23, 2016, five years ago today, was one of those days when I said, like so many of you, "I hate dating!" It was the day Cathy broke up with me. I could tell it was coming for about a month. It had become increasingly obvious that her heart was not in our relationship […]

When it comes to dating, Jeff and I have discussed the pitfalls of seeing and focusing on "red flags" in our book "Intentional Courtship" and on our "LILY Pod" podcast. Our friend Sheri Braithwaite from Dating Olympics posted this diagram in her Thriving Singles' Community. We LOVE this because it emphasizes a much more helpful focus in a […]