The marriage seminar was this Saturday, an all day long event (without kids!). Steve and Janet Price and John and Bobbie Heller spoke, and it was an amazing day. In all the preparation and praying for the day, we weren't really going into the day expecting the Lord to minister to OUR hearts in the way that He did. I guess we thought we already had a good marriage (which we do), but the teaching made us realize how much better it could be. How much closer we could become.
And the thought from this weekend that keeps ringing in my ears is that INDEPENDANCY has no place in marriage. Just as Satan tempted Eve to act in independancy of will, anytime we act independantly of our spouse, making decisions, or just holding back our thoughts and feelings, we give our enemy an opportunity to divide us. I struggle with this. Dave and I often feel like we're just passing each other in the hallway, meeting occasionally for date nights or to drive to church together. But God created marriage to bring one man and one woman together to become one flesh. How does that work exactly? And what can I do today to stop acting independantly?
Another thought I really appreciated was this:
Our children are only with us for about 18 years, but we have our husbands for the rest of our lives.
It is all too easy to place our husbands on the back burner while our children are young and so demanding. But according to Titus 2, loving our husbands should be equal in priority (if not greater) to loving our children. This is so convicting to me! And when did I start thinking it was just a natural consequence of our stage of life, this subtle distance due to the neediness of the children? What if, after the kids are older and more self-sufficient, I roll over and realize that I don't even know my spouse anymore? How sad would that be! And possibly detrimental to our marriage.
All of us know believers who have suffered through divorce and the painfulness of unfaithfulness, and as the statistics rise, it is proof that our enemy is waging a fierce battle over our marriages today. Why would he want to destroy marriage? Because it is a beautiful picture of Christ and His bride, the Church...and when two people have the kind of marriage God designed, the world can't help but see the Glory of God! Of course he wants to obliterate it!
But what if we chose to heed the truth of the Word of God and obey...what if our marriages became stronger?
- What impact would this have on our kids?
- What impact would this have on our local church?
- What impact would this have for the gospel?
"Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Hebrews3:12,13
3 comments:
Thank you, Rachel, for those thoughts. I have been dying to hear about everything since we couldn't make it! It was hard to stay home, but Caleb and I did have a great weekend just being together to celebrate his birthday. We talked about our marriage, goals we have and things we can each work on. We're hoping to get tapes from the conference!
i am so glad you mentioned the indepedancy thing! i wanted to write on my blog that that was what convicted me most this weekend, too. obviously i forgot, which means i have not been trying too hard to overcome it. thanks so much for bringing it back up. i know it is a struggle for most of us "modern women". some of us more than others")
Mom is sending the CD!!! I can't wait to sit down and listen to it with my David. Thank you for sharing what the seminar meant to you.
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