Marriage

Marriage is an amazing experience, opportunity, and partnership and cannot be taken lightly.

Jon and I have been in a relationship for a little over seven years and have been married of over a year and a half of those seven years. It is an amazing adventure and a far greater love experience than I could ever imagine.

Before we were married, I had pictured what marriage would be like, but I would never have fathomed how amazing it could possibly be. But let me be honest, it is a lot of hard work. Yet I find that the more work I put into it, the more amazing it becomes.

Jon and I made it a point early in our marriage to surround ourselves with people who would encourage our marriage and hold us accountable. We also decided to take every day as a learning process and never turn down an opportunity to learn more about what a "Godly marriage" looks like.

As most of you have read, our marriage group means the world to us. And now, as the group comes to an end, we are anxious to see what chapter is next. Out of the many amazing experiences we had in our marriage group, a few stood out far above the rest. Our leaders, Les and Linda, made it possible for our group to go see the movie Fireproof while it was still in theaters. What an amazing movie it was. The acting was a little cheesy, but the story line hit dead on. It became my favorite movie of all time. I don't want to spoil any of it, but for those of you reading this blog, I MUST ENCOURAGE YOU TO RENT IT, OWN IT, WATCH IT! Give it a try...

Jon and I also had the opportunity of sitting in on a live telecast of Focus on the Family's Marriage Conference. Every speaker was amazing, but the greatest experience came not from a speaker, but from the one-on-one time Jon and I shared in our car in the parking lot, confessing to each other things we had put between us that kept us from experiencing love to the fullest. It was the most freeing experience I had ever felt in my life (aside from the moment I became free from Sin when I accepted Jesus in my life). That day, I prayed for God to make it clear to me how to go about being a loving and respecting wife to Jon. Oh boy, did he make it clear. Over and Over again God brought about a struggle in my life that had started as a small white lie and turned into a false reality in our marriage. My gut turned upside down when the Holy Spirit made it evident to me, that the only way I can experience true love towards my husband was to confess to Jon. I wanted to throw up. I didn't want to tell him. What would his reaction be? I was so terrified, my heart beat a thousand times a minute.

During an encouraged break to spend time with our spouses, Jon and I decided to go sit in our car. I knew I had to tell him. I had a feeling that we probably wouldn't go back inside once Jon had heard all I was going to say, so I packed all my belongings. I finally spilled my guts and told him. His reaction wasn't the reaction I was expecting, but instead a reaction straight from the heart of God. Jon forgave me and he too had something to say. We poured out our hearts that day to each other and broke Satan's stronghold on our marriage with the TRUTH.

Before that point, I would say that Jon and I had a great marriage, which we did. But there was brush surrounding our home that if a fire had started we would certainly be burned to the ground. So we cleared our brush and watered down our home with the Water of Life. Every day we take time to fill ourselves with Scripture together. We used to read scripture separately, but now we read it together in order to grow as ONE.

Marriage is a lot of hard work. There are little battles we fight each day which seem so trivial compared to the Big Picture. But those little battles can become a War if we stay on separate teams. We love our God and we love each other far more than ourselves. It's daily work, that continues to make us stronger and stronger and more in love with each other than we were the day before.