Friends, I am SO excited to introduce you to one of my sweet sponsors. This woman encourages me to no end, and I am so excited that we will live in the same city in just a few weeks. Marci is a woman of God, and her heart for Jesus shines through her! I hope you will all be as blessed by her today as I am :)
I am so very excited to write a guest post for Megan’s fabulous blog. She is truly one of my favorite bloggers. Her love for Jesus is so evident. She strives to be a godly woman, wife, friend, blogger, teacher, etc. I feel blessed to know her through the blog world.
My name is Marci and I blog over at www.lifewithjoys.blogspot.com. I am a mama of three extremely fabulous kids. (Do I sound a tad biased??) My husband and I have been married for almost 18 years. I hit the big 4-0 last February. I decided to embrace my age rather than pine away for my younger years. I am having the time of my life living this life God has blessed me with. He is truly my first love and the leader of my life.
When my husband and I married, I’m certain this portion of Scripture was read at our wedding. It is such a beautiful picture of love.
Sadly, we heard it, but didn’t place it in our hearts. You see, when we were married, we didn’t look to the Lord to lead our marriage. I guess we assumed we knew what we were doing. We loved each other and had a beautiful wedding. Wasn’t that enough?
Unfortunately, it wasn’t. When we were angry, we said hurtful words. We held grudges and kept score. We built walls and didn’t let each other into the intimate places of our hearts. We let our pride rule our hearts.
Yep, our marriage was in major trouble. We were living for ourselves, rather than for God and a marriage that was designed by Him. Marriage was created and designed by our Father. It is His intention for two people to come together and love each other. He lovingly gave us instructions on how to have a successful marriage.
I will be honest, there were times I couldn’t stand my husband. I questioned why I even married him. I am certain he had moments where he felt the same way. We were toxic to each other because we cared more about preserving our own hearts rather than showing true love.
Thankfully, we fell in love with God together. He has taught us so many things about marriage and love. We now realize that love is not an emotion, it is an action. Love is not about guarding our hearts or building ourselves up. It is about sharing God’s love with each other.
Our marriage has changed drastically. We have learned to let things go and find the good in each other. Yes, we surely do things that annoy each other, but that is no longer our focus. Our focus is God. We strive to please Him in everything we do. It amazes me how much love He has placed in our hearts. I love my husband today more than the day we got married.
Does he still sometimes annoy the fool out of me? Absolutely!! Now, however, instead of nagging him and driving him crazy, I tattle on him to God. God allows us to tell Him anything and everything. More often than not, after my tattling session, I feel so much better. My anger or annoyance leaves and God once again fills my heart with an immense devotion to my husband and our marriage.
Marriage can be so difficult, but I promise there is nothing more rewarding than allowing God to carry you over the annoyances and place you in a sea of love. You will float along knowing that your Creator is your life preserver. Your marriage will be so strong and so worth it when you love the way God intended.
Many blessings and good times,
Marci J
Love this guest post! It is great to see your honesty about the early struggles in your marriage, Marci. I think all too often we misunderstand the "guard your heart" scripture in Proverbs and attempt to build walls around our hearts, thinking we need to keep people out; when in fact it simply means to watch over your heart, ensure that you allow good to reside in it, because your words and actions directly flow from what you carry there. I agree that prayer is the best way to handle those little annoyances and grievances. I feel like tattling isn't the best way to put it, because that's what kids do when they want someone else to get in trouble. I've found most often it's more about God working in me rather than working on whatever my hubby has done to bug me ;) Great post! Can't wait to read more on your blog.
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