Why two private people are picking up a camera
Honestly, we’re still figuring this part out.
Neither of us thought we’d make videos. We don’t have the whole plan. Talking about our own life on camera doesn’t come naturally, and some of it makes us uneasy. The discomfort is real. So is the conviction underneath it.
We both feel, deep down, that this is something we’re supposed to do. Maybe you know that feeling: something makes you uneasy, and you still can’t stop thinking you should do it anyway. That’s where we are.
Our hope is simple. We hope that sharing our story might give someone else hope. We don’t know who our story might reach, but that hope is why we’re willing to share it. Faith is part of how we’re beginning.
The more you give, the more comes back
Get What Ya Give is how we try to live with each other, on purpose. It is the question we try to ask ourselves: would we want to be treated the way we are treating each other? When we give that kind of attention, we find more of it comes back. That is our experience together. It is not a promise that the same thing happens for everyone, and it is not advice from experts.
We’re intentional with each other
We try to treat each other the way we did when we were beginning, and the way we would want to be treated ourselves. It doesn’t happen by accident. We choose it, and that choice makes a difference in our days. The effort is mutual. We are trying to honor each other.
We don’t put each other on a pedestal
Pedestals are easy to fall from. We’d rather see each other as real people. Real people can stumble. Keeping each other on the ground, as we actually are, is kinder than pretending either of us is above a mistake.
Our goal is not to hurt each other on purpose
We are human, and we make mistakes. Our goal is not to hurt the person we love intentionally. We don’t claim we never hurt each other, and we don’t claim we never argue. When something lands wrong, we try to ask what the other person meant instead of assuming. The goal is to understand each other before a hard moment gets away from us.
None of this is a formula. It’s what we’ve found in our own life: the more we give each other, the more we get back.
How we talk when words land wrong
We don’t communicate the same way. One of us can be short and factual. A sentence that feels plain to the person speaking can feel sharp to the person hearing it. Those differences are part of living together. They are not a failure of love, and they are not something we have finished learning.
So we try to pause. We try to explain what we meant, and to say how it felt, before the moment gets bigger than it needs to be. Sharing how it landed is different from deciding what the other person intended. We would rather do that than escalate.
The person you love is not someone you set out to wound. When we remember that, we can honor each other in the middle of a misunderstanding. We are still practicing. We don’t offer this as a method that will work in every home.
About Dave and Linda
What we hope to share is ordinary on purpose: how we talk to each other, the small choices that keep kindness going, our faith, and what we’re learning as we go. These are moments from our life together, not a program and not a set of instructions.
We’re a married couple learning how much the way we treat each other matters. Faith and intentional kindness are part of that learning. Sharing our life on camera is new territory for us. We’re beginning with our own experience: what we give each other, what we’re learning, and why it matters to us. We aren’t experts in anyone else’s marriage.
We’re just getting started
We’re beginning with our story and a hope that it might encourage someone else. We don’t have to have every part figured out to take that first step.
If there is something you know you’re supposed to do, even though it makes you uncomfortable, we’re figuring that out too.