Being reminded of and studying God’s design, purpose, and plan for marriage can’t help but strengthen your love for and commitment to each other.
This is just the notes from the seminar. You can listen on YouTube and hear more of the conversation. The link is below. Also, the links I promised to my YouTube listeners are below.
Andrew and I had the pleasure of going on a 7-day cruise to Mexico in October of 2012. It was great, good friends, good times, great memories. But the best part was the seminars we went to. The focus of the cruise for the people in our group was marriage and it was lead by Pastor Ruben Cortez of Calvary Chapel San Leandro and his wife Cynthia.
Check out the two videos at the bottom of this post. The ship was caught between two hurricanes in the middle of the night the first night and on the second day.
Whether you are newly wed, many years wed or somewhere in between, being reminded of and studying God’s design, purpose and plan for marriage can’t help but strengthen your love for and commitment to each other.
I can’t possibly repeat the whole seminar, but here are the highlights.
- God designed marriage and has a great plan in mind.
- The primary purpose of marriage is to reflect God’s glory.
- It is important to receive your spouse as God’s perfect gift for you.
- Receiving your spouse means more than accepting him or her. It means you embrace the God-given differences he’s built into each of you.
- Receiving your spouse is a daily choice.
- God designed marriage to be a covenant, not a contract.
- Our differences and weaknesses can push us apart. The gospel brings healing and reconciliation.
- Couples must learn to walk by the power of the Holy Spirit in marriage.
- Conflict is common to all marriages. The goal is not to be conflict-free but to learn to handle conflict correctly when it occurs. Healthy conflict resolution occurs when couples are willing to seek and grant forgiveness.
Ten ideas for helping your marriage last a lifetime (from the seminar).
- You need a savior
- Stay committed to one another
- Pray with your spouse
- Forgive one another
- Realize that there’s no such thing as a perfect husband or perfect wife.
- Have faith that God knows what He is doing.
- Trust that God gives grace and direction as you trust Him.
- You’ll need to make compromises.
- Be objective and take the emotion out of problem solving.
- Love your spouse.
Staying in love with and married to your spouse is a choice. It’s a choice you make every day. You can choose to focus on the things that bother and/or bug you about your spouse or you can choose to focus on the good things. Before you choose to focus on the things about your spouse that irritate you, take a look at yourself, count all the good things about your spouse, remember why you married your spouse and pray. Make the godly choice.
Video 1 Andrew took at 5am.
Video 2 was taken after breakfast.
Son Broadcasting, God Answers Prayers, Andrew and Gail Garcia
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