Iron Sharpens Iron

Morning Gents

So In summary of where we have been with our Tuesday Morning Marriage Devotions...

Choice 1: Lock the Escape Hatch and Throw away the Key
Choice 2: I will be Intentional

Today we move into Choice 3: I will make our Relationship a Priority

EXCERPT:  “When a couple arrives at our office for marriage counseling, we explain in the first session that even though both the husband and wife are tremendously important as individuals, we view the “client” to be the marriage relationship... We choose to approach marital counseling this way because we see a couple’s marriage as a separate entity, created by both of them and yet separate from either of them. This entity we refer to as a couple’s “us”.” Lifemates

REFLECTION:
It’s tough on your wedding day to truly understand  letting go of your individuality to embrace “us”. Most couples get married and struggle for months or even years to accept the new “us”.
God sees marriage like a team sport. As much as people care about the different players, ultimately you want the team to win. The choices of every player are important but collectively they affect the outcome of the team.
Your marriage is NOT made up of two teams! You are one of two players in the same team and with marriage you cannot trade players should one of them not be pulling their weight so it is important for both to come to the place where they truly embrace life from the perspective of being in a team.

A pastor shared something that happened in his life that illustrates this well...
This pastor asks his wife to pray about whether he should move forward on some business opportunity that had presented itself.
She prays about it and tell him she does not have a peace about it. The husband really feels good about the opportunity so tells her to go and pray about it again. She does and returns with the same answer, no peace. He asks her a third time to go and pray, but this time really pray! She does and comes back the third time with the same answer, no peace. The pastor never got the answer he was looking for and truly believed this was a good opportunity so he ignored her response and moved forward in the business opportunity. (The Husband NOT embracing “us”). We’ll the business opportunity flopped and the pastor lost all the money a few months later. He came to his wife, humbled himself and realized he had ignored her cautions and promised that he would make it all right, he would fix this mess because it was all his fault for not listening. His wife’s response was, “No, we will fix this TOGETHER, I never felt a peace about the opportunity but the moment you made the choice, it became OURS.” (The Wife Embraced  and understood “us”)

CHALLENGE:
What choices and actions are you living out that are not in favor of “Us”?
Bring those before your wife and humble yourself asking for forgiveness.

PRAYER:
God if there is any self in our heart and motivations against our wives, please reveal it to us and pluck it out. God we long to see our marriages the way you see them, two, yet ultimately One!
Amen.


That should keep us all busy for the week!

Rob