Iron Sharpens Iron

Married Men...

I have found some very cool keys that have unlocked riches in my life over the last 5 or so years of marriage. These keys have changed the course of my life and my children’s children will feel the effects of it. They will eat from fields that have not plowed in, live in houses they did not build. We are all called to leave a heritage for our families, that’s not only money but the richness of relationships.

I have dreams and visions of having an amazing marriage, of having Natalie turn to me at 60 and look at me with eyes of deep love, honor and respect. I have dreams of my kids being able to hold us up as poster childs for true love and commitment. I dream of our marriage having been a solid foundation upon which God did amazing things!

BUT... Dreams that are not followed by deliberate choices will not come true. I have choices to make and work to do to ensure we reach the prize.

I want to lead us through some rad choices from the book LifeMates...


Choice 1. I will Lock the Escape Hatch and Throw away the Key

Society encourages us to keep our options open. Don’t commit to one thing, try everything. I always get pissed when I buy a phone or ipod and the very next week a better model comes out for the same price!
This keeps us holding out, waiting for the next best thing, never wanting to commit, making sure I can return it if something else comes along that’s better.
We carry this mentaity into our marriages and even if some of us don’t trade our wife in for another, we can find ourselves fantasizing or dreaming about a newer model.

Is the escape hatch open, or unlocked in your marriage?
If it Is open, you need to lock it and throw away the key. If you have a way out, you WILL NOT make it, life is guaranteed to overwhelm you within the next 50 years at some point and you will use that door leaving devastation and not blessing, for generations to come.

Reflection: Paint a mental picture of how you want your marriage to look when you are 60. How does you wife think of you, how do your kids and friends think of you...
Take the time to think about whether you have any escape hatch open or unlocked in your marriage in any small way. Throwing away the key is the 1st choice you need to make to getting to the picture you painted.

Prayer: God give us a greater hope and vision for our marriage. We are surrounded by people with survival mentalities, we don’t want to simply survive our marriages, we want to thrive in them and be a wine skin worthy to carry out your charges. Amen.


Rob

Shoot me an email for anyone you want me to put on this list.
This will be a weekly email. Take the time to think through these principles, they could unlock some chains!