“Married with Benefits” is one of our latest works-in-progress, a series of short videos about marriage and the issues that may come up.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Friends with Benefits.” It should be no surprise to anyone that we are not fans of that phrase and what it means.

Chris and I have it in our hearts to change the tune… to help people understand that you can be “Married with Benefits” and how being married is a good thing. Why is it—in today’s society—that feels like such an unpopular message?

We have embarked on new territory for us. We are not actors, and yet here we are shooting our own “web style” series. We will shoot various installments of our series, similar to how people make shows for the web where each episode is 4 to 5 minutes. These videos would be used as part of our public speaking.

We depict a couple—Josh and Jessica—who have a lot of challenges in their marriage so we can show what not to do. We can then open up the discussion with the audience to talk about what went wrong. Some episodes will have a follow-up tag scene that shows a potential resolution. We hope anyone who may be struggling with their marriages or fighting against particular issues will be helped by our show.

(Screen shots from the episode called: “Christmas Every Day?”—an episode shot at the  ranch in North Carolina where Chris and I got married.)

We are fans of the way Jesus taught things:

He told stories and parables quite often, rather than only preaching all the time.  Neither one of us are preachers, but we do enjoy public speaking together to share messages we feel God has put on our hearts. We hope to mix up our talks with these dramatized videos about marital issues.

Even though it will be a little while before we have the chance to release an episode or two, or ten, we want to share a bit about the series as we go through the process of producing, writing, directing, acting, editing etc. (Yes, we are trying to do everything ourselves. Are we nuts??)

(In “Fighting Fairless,” Josh lets Jessica know he’s been “keeping a record of everything wrong she’s done since their wedding day.” How well do you think that goes over? This episode was adapted from a hilarious church skit written by Rene Gutteridge.)

In the series, Josh and Jessica do not get along very well (which is very different from the real Chris and Cheryl). We enjoy pretending to get into fights to play our roles. (We are sure we’ll have a very fun blooper reel to share on the DVD version one day.)

(There are those endearing moments when they realize they’ve done something wrong and try to do what they can to make it right, like in this episode called “The Gift of Marriage.”)

In our series, we plan to tackle such issues as using unfair fighting practices, when thanklessness harms your marriage, what happens when you forget to keep romance alive, why you shouldn’t make decisions without consulting each other, making room for your spouse in your life, communication problems, expectations, the need for quality time and many more.

(Production still from when we were shooting an episode in downtown Burbank. It’s called “The Honeymoon’s Over, Now What?”)