Guys, it seems like we have been cooped up inside so much this winter season!  We have had more colds this year than ever before and more freezing weather than Louisiana has seen in years! 

Can you imagine how many hours we’ve spent inside together? Have we mentioned we’re inside with two young kids?? This could be a recipe for frustration, crankiness, “badditude” (you know, bad attitude) I could go on. And to be honest, there were moments where we experienced just that. BUT, we have had SO MUCH practice loving each other in close quarters and for long periods of time, that we are actually and truthfully enjoying one another like never before.

We have been married for nine years and have had all sorts of feelings and thoughts about our marriage and some of those feelings and thoughts have been based on lies and most of those feelings and thoughts have been based on Truth. When we got married, Joe made a password for something we shared and we’ll go ahead and share it- don’t hack our life, ok? OK. The password was 2become1. That simple password was a powerful reminder of the truth found in Ephesians 5:31! When we got married we actually became one and we experience that one-ness.

So we became one, now what? Well, every moment is a chance to either minister Life or death to whoever we are with in the moment (even to ourselves!) When we said. “I do.” we committed to being the main person out of all other people IN THE ENTIRE WORLD who will minister Life to each other. Do you get how HUGE that is? A lifetime of opportunities to minister life to one another…or death.

Moment by moment we have a choice to either depend on God and minister Life to each other or live indepent of God on our own resources and risk ministering death. For example if one of us doesn’t get their needs met and responds by speaking unkindly to the other out of pain thats understandable but its not acting like who we are. We know better but it’s hard to break patterns.  So we still have these kinds of moments. I wish it weren’t true, but it is. With God’s help we can own the action and confront the expectations, lies, or misunderstandings behind the action. The more we confront the death with his Truth the more victory we experience! It’s work guys. Serious work. It’s not fun. It’s often uncomfortable.  

Thank goodness God knows we need help, guidance and Power to do this thing; He  tells us how we are to treat each other as husband and wife and we can exchange our strength for His and love one another as Jesus loves us. MMMmmm, sounds nice, doesn’t it? There are times (like this current cooped-up season) where we are living the Life and loving each other as Jesus loves us- for real! We take care of each other well and look after each other’s interests and both help with the house work and parenting and speak kindly and hug often. It is THE BEST. Some would even say, “The Sweet Spot.”

We’ve read the Scripture and believed what God says and then acted on that belief. That is glorious! We can see it, our kids can see it and those in our inner circles can see it.

You see, when we are believing that we are loved and accepted by Jesus, we do not have to look to one another for love and acceptance; we can come together confident in the One Who loves us and then release that same love and acceptance onto our spouse. We are one and we have God given desire and power to love each other as we love ourselves and even go next level- love each other as Christ loves the church! Because of the unity in our marriage, we are able to trust one another and even call each other to greatness….for the rare times we’re, uh, not so great. We believe that each one of us is here to love and serve the other. So we make eye contact, even when it’s tough, and  admit when we are wrong and forgive – even if we’re embarrassed or hurt. We will continue to love and be loved. It’s a thrilling, funny, tough, forgiveness-filled, joyous ride.

And we are so thankful to be on it!

To God be all the Glory.