Marriage Maintenance

For those that have been with my blog awhile, you know that occasionally I post something about marriage. The reason for this is because having a Biblically based marriage is SO IMPORTANT!!! Not only do I long to have a strong Biblical marriage - I desire to come along and encourage and support others in their journey to do the same!

Joel and I will be married 21 years in July - can I just be blunt here and say...Having a strong, Biblical marriage takes WORK!!! It is HARD! It takes regular maintenance and SACRIFICE! It is SO worth it!!! Joel and I have to make a priority of our marriage - in a culture that teaches and screams "It's all about ME" we have to be intentional to say "NO! It's not!"

Second to our relationship with Jesus Christ - our marriage is our TOP PRIORITY! Yes, it comes before our children, it comes before our extended family, it comes before our ministry, and it comes before ourselves. It is THAT BIG OF A DEAL!

Now I say all this, but must also make sure you know - we don't get it right 100% of the time. In fact, we have fallen short many times but our heart and our intent is to keep our marriage at the forefront of it all!

Ephesians 5:33 sums it up well "However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."

So, how do we do this in a world that pulls us in opposite directions? Here are a few tips:

* PRAYER: We make a habit of regular prayer time together each night before going to sleep. To thank the Lord for the great things He has done, to ask for his guidance and direction, to just praise Him! Nothing will draw you and your spouse together better than entering the throne room together! 

*COMMUNICATION: Another regular habit - talking and communication about EVERYTHING! He needs to love me enough to communicate with me and I need to respect him enough to trust his input

* HAVE FUN: We love to have fun and we love even more to have fun together! Sometimes it's playing a board game, sometimes just singing along with the radio, sometimes it's just being silly and sometimes it is enjoying the company of others but we LOVE TO DO FUN!!! This has been a HUGE influence in our marriage! 

* DATES: A regular date night is a MUST for your marriage!!! We try to do something once a month - even it is a simple movie and dinner or a walk around the neighborhood...it's time together

* TIME AWAY ALONE TOGETHER: This is one of those areas that I have to be honest and say we have fallen short...time, money and life sometimes make this hard but I am seeing that it is so essential! We need to just get away from the mundane of life and be refreshed and restored! 


Again, all of these areas take effort, intention, and commitment to make them work - but the end result is a strong marriage that will be able to withstand when the storm winds blow!

I am super excited that in our effort to work on that last one - time away alone - we are going on a retreat for Ministers and their wives! I simply can't wait - just two more sleeps!!!