Posts Tagged ‘Spouses’

For those of us who are married, you know that investing in the relationship with our mate is one of the most profitable activities we can do. MarriedLife, a ministry devoted to helping people experience the individual growth necessary for a healthy marriage, has kicked off a campaign called The Great Date Experiment. This is how they introduce it.

Most of us want to spend time with our spouse, but most of us don’t spend enough time with our spouse. When we do get time together, a lot of us experience the classic, “What do you want to do? I don’t know, what do you want to do?”

So, your task if you choose to accept it: go to the site, download a date and invest in your marriage!

In at risk teen ministry, nothing ever goes as planned. Bible studies take 180’s and distractions are a constant factor. Often God will give me a sentence that will shock my girls into complete attention. Recently it’s been, “If you’re mad at God then yell at him. He already knows you are anyways!” Jaws drop to the floor at the seemingly irreverent statement coming from the Bible Study Lady. Let me firmly say, we aren’t so different. In our minds it’s decided we have no right, we’ve complained too many times, or somehow we deserve it.

Being a wife of a recovering sex addict it is vital I know the permission God gives me to express where my heart truly stands without a barrage of advice. Without ever facing my feelings of abandonment, worthlessness, indignation, injustice, betrayal, and anger I obliterate my own chances of survival in my marriage. These questions and resentments will indeed block my own relationship with Christ if not dealt with emotionally. It does not matter if I have all the right answers if I am unwilling to face my pain and embitterment. This opportunity to vent opens a doorway of communication in deeper intimacy with our Abba. How can you grow in your relationship if you are not allowed to ask the deep groanings of your heart?

What I find so encouraging in my journey is that God’s own Word is filled with questioning people! (Few Examples: Psalms 42:10-11, Lamentations 3:19-20, Habbukuk 1, etc.) God is not threatened by our pain or blame. In fact He encourages the expression and condemns white washed tombs. Can you fathom God loves you so much that He is willing to face your accusations again and again in order to reconcile that relationship? Beloved, you cannot be an ambassador/representative of reconciliation unless you’ve been reconciled yourself! (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) If you are unable to call out to God in your despair, your relationships is one sided. It will go no further by the impassible wall. Open that door child of God; He stands at it knocking to be let into the deepest wounds of your heart.

The freedom to question is just the start. The answers you receive are often surprising. This freedom has deepened my roots and strengthened my intimacy with Jesus. God calls us where we are and now we have to be honest with where that truly is.

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. ~Psalm 145:18