The preparation for the marriage doesn't end when the wedding activities are over. In fact, the work is just beginning.
Invest in Your Marriage and Reap the Benefits
Marriage & family, God’s Plan
Marriage & family, God’s Plan
1. The first step in investing in our marriage is to seek our happiness and joy from the right source.
2. The second step in investing in our marriage is seeking our roles through God.
3. The third step is having a forgiving heart.
4. The fourth step is making marriage a priority.
5. The fifth step in praying for one another.
I can only speak for myself, but I have found that often times when things have gone wrong, I would sometimes forget to pray. Oh, I would say, "Lord, look at what is happening to me" or I would tell my friends about the situations. But I really didn't go to God in prayer.
I am thankful for God's grace and how he teaches us what is right for us to do. What I have learned in the 26 years of marriage is that when things are not going as I would want, I should take it to God in prayer, FIRST.
I have found that sometimes my disappointment comes not because things are wrong, but because I have allowed myself to slip in the first step as listed before. I have become disappointed because I have looked to my husband as my source of happiness and joy, and in doing so, I have become disappointed.
So I must go to God in prayer so that he can first get my vision back on the right path. When he does that, then I can pray and ask God that both my husband and myself are doing as he has instructed us to do.
There is something that is also important for us regarding what we invest in our marriages. We need not wait until things go bad before we pray, but instead we should pray daily that God would help our spouses be the husband or wife he has called them to be. We should pray for their strength at work and against the temptations that would come and try to defeat them. We should pray that God would grant them the ability to stand no matter what comes their way.
When you and I invest in our marriage, we do more than just seek what we can get out of it. We seek to invest in our spouses ability to be successful God's way. So let us remember that if we want a good marriage, we need to first seek God for the source of our happiness and joy. We also need to seek God for what his call is for us within our marriage.
We then must have a forgiving heart because our spouses are human and as people we will not always get everything right. We then must put our marriage as a priority and one way to do that is to seek God for the development of our marriage and as individual people. When we do this, we can see our marriages becoming what God planned for them to be.