I'm
gonna start this post out honestly by saying that Leon and I have not
always been the perfect example of putting God first in the business of
our lives. I still don't think that now. However, we've gotten better!
He's
a full time cop and I'm a full time mom. He works at night and I'm with
the kiddos during the day. When he's awake I'm sleeping and when I'm
awake he's sleeping.
Get my point? We rarely see each
other most days and we've used our busyness as an excuse to not read the
bible together or pray together. And in doing that two years ago ended
out with a very bad taste in our mouths.
We had little intimacy, we argued almost every day and with him being a
cop he was letting the influence of swearing and getting angry easily
take over him which led to.. well, more arguing.
However,
things changed last October when he had a 20 day vacation. We both just
changed and desire even more of God. In one night Leon's anger left him
and he were love birds all over again. Now our goal and passion is to
put God first in our lives. Ahead of our busyness, of our children and
each other. We desire to be overwhelmed by Him and not overwhelmed by
the busyness of our days.
We read devotionals when we're
together and when He's working I'll send him a sermon I've been
listening too or a verse I loved that day. I wish I could say that we
spend hours together every day in prayer but it's just not that way yet
and hopefully once his full time Pastor lifestyle comes through we'll be
able to do that. I deeply admire spouses who can!
So, here are some ways Leon and I keep God first in our marriage and communicate Jesus to each other.
1.
We pray together.. Not everyday (like we should) but we do as often as
we can. However, when we're not praying together, we're praying for each
other. which is just as good in my opinion. Man there's power in
prayer!
2. We read the bible and devotionals when He's off
of work. On days He's not working we'll read a devotional together
before we go to bed. We love reading Devotionals by Bill Johnson, Joseph
Prince and just anything that brings us in the Awesomeness of God's
love and power.
We'll also listen to sermons together.. We love Todd White! Also Bill Johnson and a lot of Marriage wisdom sermons.
3.
We pray with our children. Now this is something him and I do before we
put Evelynne (our daughter) to bed. We give her a kiss, read her a
story and we pray together. It's my favorite looking around the room
with all of our hands held together and talking to Jesus as a family.
4.
I write Leon love notes with scripture telling him how much I love him
and how proud I am of him with a scripture to brighten his day. Writing
is my language and that's a form of communication that I have always
shown him.
5. And when he's not working on Sundays we
ALWAYS make it a priority to be at church.. It doesn't matter how many
times My 3 month old Liya girl has kept me up. :)
Take it away Charlene. :)
You
know what? Pearson and I are very busy. Especially Pearson. Did you
know that getting a PhD is hard and time consuming? Shocker, right? But
in all seriousness, Pearson really isn't home a lot. Most nights he gets
home at 9 or later and he works Saturdays too. And while I may not work
so much for my job, I also take care of a dog, do housework, write a
blog, and am very involved with church by teaching children's classes,
hosting showers and all sorts of other things.
But
you know what? There is always someone out their busier. I mean, we
don't even have kids yet. I can remember how busy I was as a kid going
from piano lessons to ballet then straight to softball practice all in
one day. And my mom had to take me all those places and figure out how
to get my brother where he needed to be also.
Life
is busy. That word is thrown around all the time. And I think The Devil
tries to use our business to keep us out of Gods word and stop us from
talking to our Creator. I think Satan tries to trick us into thinking we
don't have time for God today and makes us forget our priorities. And a
lot of times, he succeeds.
So here are some ideas to help you keep God first in your busy marriage.
- Pray with your spouse.
I don't care how late it is, how tired you are or any of those excuses,
pray together before you go to sleep. Pray about things that happened
that day, hopes you have for the next day, your future together and
anything else you need to bring to God. Make it a habit. Pray together
before every meal. Pray together at other special times. Just always be
in prayer together.
- Pray for your spouse. I tell
you, there is not much else you can do to feel closer to your spouse
than to lift him or her up in prayer. Ask him how you can pray for him.
Pray constantly for his safety, his confidence at work, any problems or
doubts he's having that he told you about, and his spirituality.
- Study the Bible together.
We definitely don't do this as often as we should but we try to read a
short devotional together before bed every night. It's very important to
constantly study and grow your own faith through scripture, but it's
just important to grow your faith together as a couple.
- Make Church a priority.
Go to church every time the doors are open and get involved. Find out
where you can help as individuals but also as a couple. And if your
spouse ever doesn't feel like going, set an example and go by yourself
anyway. The result might surprise you.
- Go to God with conflicts.
When people fight with their spouses (or anyone for that matter),
usually the first instinct is to run to friends or family and rant about
the issue. We tell other people our side of the story and sometimes
blame the other party and put them in a bad light. Instead of running to
other people, we should run to God. Take the issue up with the Man
Upstairs on your own and maybe He'll show you your fault. Take the issue
to The Father together with your spouse and maybe He'll help you find
an answer.
- Treat God's word as your first source of marriage counsel.
I tell you, there is a lot of wisdom in that book. If you have
questions about anything going on in your life, you can probably find
answers in the Bible, but especially marriage. Explore the topic and
soak in the wisdom.
- Find other Christian couple friends to spend time with.
It's certainly important to make friends with people who have similar
beliefs and values as yourself but as a couple it's important to make
friends with couples in this category. Being friends with people
in similar stages of life is such a blessing. You are experiencing much
of the same things in life and can help each other on your journeys.
