Marriage through the Struggles
I wrote this on on our 11th anniversary in November of 2019–the hardest year of our life.
I shared it on social media, but felt like our first blog post for our Marriage page needed to be this! We hope it encourages you and stirs up a strong grit to fight for your marriage, pray for your spouse, and do the hard work together! ️ There ARE rainbows after walking through fire together! We give God all of the glory in our journey!
11 years. ️️
11 years of marriage with my soulmate. My best friend. ️
We just watched our wedding video. We laughed a little seeing how much different we are now (thankfully!), and what those vows of “for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health” truly meant. We had no clue what the next 11 years would bring. The longer we are married I’m confident that with each anniversary that is celebrated each spouse chooses to stay and love each day. And that EVERY marriage goes through mountains and valleys! Some longer, taller, or deeper than others.
The longer we are married I’m seeing our friends the same age, older or younger, celebrate their anniversaries and I applaud you!!! And sadly, many who are no longer married. I know so many of my friends who have done the hard work and tried to make their marriage work and yet the other spouse walked away. Makes my heart so sad. If you’re a spouse that worked hard, I applaud you too!Please hear me, as this is something I feel God is stirring up in our hearts to share in a humble voice, not prideful. William and I both could have walked away from our marriage more than once. Satan has tried to steal, kill, and destroy our marriage and family just like he has tried to do with sooo many others! He doesn’t want us BOTH to choose to make each other a priority. He wants us to get DISTRACTED with our busy lives. He wants us to be selfish of our own desires first. For grief to cause division. For unrealistic expectations to show a perfect family. For resentment and anger to build up instead of surrendering and forgiving for grace and love to take it’s place.
What I’ve learned from a wise friend is if you aren’t INTENTIONALLY feeding your marriage then you’re feeding your divorce! Choose to intentionally feed your marriage! What does that look like? I think it’s different for every couple’s needs. But one thing in common is intentionally growing closer to the Lord individually and together daily. Praying for each other specifically. This is something I haven’t done on the regular until I read the chapter in Priscilla Shirer’s book Fervent about praying for our husband and children. Prayer is powerful! And is the BEST tool against Satan attacking us!
My sweet friend La’Nette shared this list today of how we can pray for our husbands!
Here are 10 Ways You Can Pray For Your Husband:
(PS–I recommend you insert your husbands name as well... make your prayers personal! Get detailed with God)
♥️I pray for my husband’s relationship with God.
♥️I pray that my husband would have a soft heart toward God.
♥️I pray that God would bless my husband.
♥️I pray for my husband to be a devoted spiritual leader for our family.
♥️I pray for my husband to have a heart for our children.
♥️I pray for my husband to make wise choices.
♥️I pray for my husband’s emotional, mental and physical health.
♥️I pray for my husband to flourish at work.
♥️I pray for my husband’s strength to resist sexual temptation.
♥️I pray that I will show my husband respect, grace and kindness.
William isn’t on social media any more, but I still want to publicly say how much I love him and how proud I am of him!! For two years now he has stepped up to be the most amazing husband and dad for me and Koen! I’ll share more of our story later, but I’m just so deeply grateful for all of his unconditional love, selfless care, patience, and most importantly how he has become a STRONG Christian leader for our family and has learned what it means to pray hard for and over us! ️️️ He took today off work to spend the day with me and Koen and made us the yummiest Italian wedding soup for our anniversary meal tonight! I am so, so blessed! We are both imperfect but perfect for each other! ️
How are you intentionally feeding your marriage today? ️
