Ignite The Fire Of Your Marriage – Week 3
We were moving into our second year of being husband and wife. We had already experienced so much as newlyweds adventuring places like California, Washington, Africa, El Salvador, Florida and Canada. We were missionaries, traveling around the world together sharing the love of God. As much as it was exciting, it was incredibly difficult as we encountered hardships that tested our faith and challenged the way we trusted God.
One thing that we established early in our relationship that unified us and gave us hope was dreaming together. We were passionate about sharing where we were and where we believed God was taking us.
We were living in Canada at the time, just above the New York border, working on a ministry project with good friends. We were living in one of the most beautiful places on earth. We had only been there a few months when we felt God call us home to Southern California. It was difficult to make that decision, knowing what our purpose would be for moving back. Yet, after every conversation we had it seemed very clear that God wanted us debt free.
My husband’s school loans had been deferred up until this point, but we couldn’t push them away any longer. The responsibility of paying them off became a reality and our motivation to do so came from God’s word:
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” – Romans 13:8
We dreamt about being debt free, we dreamt about strategy on how to get there, and we dreamt about where God could take us without the burden of debt. So we packed up our little car and headed home with a massive dream in our hearts.
For two years we focuses on this goal to be debt free. We put almost every penny we had towards the school loans in an effort to pay them off as quickly as we could.
Of course there were days that were harder than others. There were times that we fought about finances, times we were frustrated about sending so much money towards the debt and sacrificing other things we wanted to do so, times that in my selfishness led me to blame my husband for our circumstances and other times that our passion to fulfill our dream dwindled.
However, during those challenging times we would have another conversation to refocus our eyes and our hearts. We would remind each other of our dream to be debt free and what that meant for our marriage. Our dream served as a gauge for us to measure where we were compared to where we hoped to be.
After two years of pursuing our dream we celebrated together! We celebrated our victory and all that we had experienced along the way. We praised God for helping us work together as a team!
As we celebrated we realized our potential. We realized that we can accomplish much more when our hearts are aligned.
Six and a half years later we still love to spend time chatting about goals, things we desire to accomplish, places we would like to explore, hopes we have for our son, and so much more. During these conversations we evaluate our marriage relationship and honestly share with each other what is working great, as well as areas we can try to improve.
I would say that sharing these dreams together is a vital part of our relationship. It helps keep us on the same page so that we have something to look forward to as we work together as a team to reach them. Dreaming together inspires hope and faithfulness in what is to come! And reaching our goals gives us another reason to celebrate marriage!
Week 3 Challenge:
Make a list with your husband about your future marriage dreams and talk about how you can work towards these dreams together. Then spend time praying over this list together.
My three blogging friends Sheila, Courtney, and Darlene have some incredible wisdom and tips they are sharing on how to dream with your husband! Check them out by clicking their buttons:
