05/26/2020
Some wisdom for wives/moms. Marriage can be tough. Invite the Lord into your marriage and have people around you who know how important this relationship is for us and our kids. Praying for marriages today and the unusual strain during this quarantine. Praying families come out stronger!
While it is nice to have friends around you that will watch your back and take your side, those same friends should understand that most often, the BEST way they can love you well is to fight for you AND the health of your marriage.
We hear many stories where couples are working through a hard time and the situation is drawn out or made worse because their 'friends' (as well as family members!) are speaking ill of their spouse without restraint or wisdom. Doing so is incredibly counterproductive.
No one is perfect. Every spouse has issues and every friend and family member probably has reason to speak of your spouse in some negative light.
Good friends—truly good friends—will help you fight FOR your marriage. They'll offer godly wisdom to help you with a troubling situation. They'll point you to God's Word. Then, they'll help you process through your emotions. Truly good friends will help you identify blind spots in your own life and point out ways where you can be sharpened and learn to be more like Christ.
This does warrant a few caveats: it doesn't mean that your friends enable abusive or sinful behavior in your spouse. Instead, a good friend will help you find a way forward, and that usually means pointing you (and perhaps going with you) to find godly counsel (a pastor, a mentor, a therapist) or get immediate help (the police). Proverbs 19:20 says, "Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise." Good friends will offer wise advice and timely discipline (words meant to urge your sanctification, correction, and righteousness). Your marriage needs advocates, not adversaries. Protect your marriage from division, but also from divisive people. Doing so will help you find the healthiest paths to reconciliation through every manner of hardship.
Stay fierce,
Ryan & Selena
