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[Aaron] Hey, we’re Aaron and Jennifer Smith with Marriage After God.
Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.
[Aaron] And today, we’re in part 15 of the Marriage After God series and we’re gonna be talking with Adam and Katie Reid about how we are stronger together. Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast where we believe that marriage was meant for more than just happily ever after.
[Jennifer] I’m Jennifer, also known as Unveiled Wife.
[Aaron] And I’m Aaron, also known as Husband Revolution.
[Jennifer] We have been married for over a decade.
[Aaron] And so far, we have four young children.
[Jennifer] We have been doing marriage ministry online for over seven years through blogging and social media.
[Aaron] With the desire to inspire couples to keep God at the center of their marriage, encouraging them to walk in faith everyday.
[Jennifer] We believe that Christian marriage should be an extraordinary one, full of life.
Love.
And power.
[Aaron] That can only be found by chasing after God.
[Jennifer] Together.
[Aaron] Thank you for joining us on this journey as we chase boldly after God’s will for our life together.
[Jennifer] This is Marriage After God. Thank you guys so much for joining us on this podcast today. We wanna encourage everyone listening to just leave us a star rating review, that just helps the podcast get out into the world. And so, if you wanna support this podcast and you’ve been inspired by it, would you take a moment just to leave that review? Because it helps people find marriage after God.
[Aaron] Also, and we also wanna let you know the whole reason we’ve been doing these interviews, the whole reason this podcasts exists is because we wrote a book called Marriage After God, my wife and I and we’re excited to get it in your hands. If you would take a moment after this podcast is over or take a pause in between and just go shop.marraigeaftergod.com and pick up a copy of the Marriage After God book. It’s our newest book, we’ve written it together and we wrote it for you and your marriage and we’re excited to get it in your hands and hear what you think about it.
[Jennifer] So, today, our special guests are Adam and Katie Reid. Hi you guys, thanks for joining us.
[Adam] Hey, thanks for having us.
[Katie] Thanks so much, we’re glad to be here.
[Jennifer] So, why don’t you just take a moment to introduce yourselves to our listeners, I’m sure a lot of them already know who you are, Katie, and your book. But just touch on that and then how long you’ve been married, how many children, what you guys do together, that kinda thing.
[Katie] Yeah, well, we’re Adam and Katie Reid. I mean, Adam can probably share some things about himself too. But he’s the lead pastor at our church, I’m a speaker and writer and we have a marriage show we do together called Stop Hammock Time on Facebook Live. And we have five loud and wonderful kids, we are not usually bored.
Awesome.
[Adam] Yeah, no, we stay busy and did you say that we’ve been married for 17 years?
[Katie] No, I did not.
[Adam] Yeah, we’ve been married for 17 years, it’ll be 18 this summer and five kids ages ranging 14 to 2 1/2, almost three. And so, yeah, we definitely stay busy.
[Katie] Lots of life experience.
[Aaron] Yeah, that’s awesome, we’re aspiring to that. We’re on our way, we’re at year 12 and we got–
Four.
Yeah, four kids. So, we’re on our way.
Yeah.
Okay, guys, so, we always like to start with an icebreaker, this just helps everyone get to know you just a little bit more, so we’re going there. What’s your guys’ most embarrassing marriage moment?
[Katie] Oh, man, so–
[Adam] How do we choose?
[Katie] How do we choose? So we were part of a discipleship program at a Christian camp and there was a guy on staff that looked a lot like Adam and sometimes Adam let his twin, named Matt, borrow his vehicle. And one day, I was at the grocery store and I saw Adam’s vehicle there. I’m like oh my goodness, I am going to totally pull the best prank. So I climbed into the back, like the trunk area of the car. And I’m like I’m gonna jump out, like maybe after he’s driving, this is gonna be so funny. Well, all of a sudden, I’m kinda peeking and it’s taking forever, it’s really hot. And all of a sudden, I see our friend Matt walking towards the car and I’m like oh, this is gonna be awkward. And so, I’m like how do I get out of the truck area before he gets there? And so, I can’t get out but I’m like hey, I thought you were Adam and I was gonna jump out. That was definitely embarrassing.
[Adam] Yeah, that was–
[Aaron] That’s really funny.
[Jennifer] What a terrifying prank.
[Adam] It was a great story to hear when she got back to the house. But another one that we just had happen just a couple days ago, we’ve been getting a bunch of snow and ice here in Michigan. So a lot of ice the last few days and I was watching something online teaching you how to walk on ice. And how when it’s icy out, you should walk differently than your normal stride and keeping your center of gravity over your feet. And they said you should walk like a penguin because the penguins, they kinda have things figured out and they’re on ice and snow often. And so, we were going to a funeral, Katie and I and we dropped our kids off at our in-laws. We walked out and the driveway was really slippery and so, I said, hey Katie, walk like a penguin. And so, we’re both kinda waddling with our heads down and our center of gravity over, our toes turned out walking like penguins. And we look up and there’s a guy walking his dog right at the end of the driveway and he kinda looked at us like we were really nutty. And Katie says, we’re trying to walk like a penguin, trying that technique out on the ice. And he just kinda like okay. Just kept walking.
[Aaron] No context, no context.
[Adam] Yeah, we got in the car and laughed really hard about that one.
[Jennifer] That’s awesome.
[Aaron] That would have been awesome to see.
[Adam] You guys gotta be able to laugh at yourself.
[Aaron] Yeah, being able to laugh is joy, that’s joy. Being able to laugh at yourself, that’s good. So, we’re gonna go into, thanks for sharing those embarrassing moments. Adam, I just really wanna, I think that was an awesome prank you played on your wife, that you–
[Adam] Best prank.
[Aaron] In the car when she was with, that’s funny.
Yeah–
So, we’re gonna go into–
[Adam] Didn’t know if she said but it was a Jeep. And so, she wasn’t climbing in the back of a car and closing the trunk on herself but it was the back of Jeep and it was so hot and she was dripping with sweat and that made it even more funny.
[Aaron] So we’re gonna get into a quote real quick from the Marriage After God book in chapter 15. So we’re gonna share a quote from chapter 15, Stronger Together in the Marriage After God book and this is the quote, the two of you serving God together will always make a greater impact than the two of you could make alone striving for your own accomplishments and happiness. So, real quick, we can just talk about that for a second, do you feel like this, do you see this in your own marriage?
[Adam] Absolutely, yeah, I look back at my life before marriage and completely different person, different way of doing life and different way of ministering and that definitely comes from learning and growing because of being married to Katie. And I think, I don’t wanna speak for you, but I think you can say the same thing, Katie. She has strengths that I don’t have and I have strengths that she doesn’t have and that’s the beauty of marriage and God’s design For that is making each other better and not really making each other better, I think, but the husband and wife combination there, not just husband and wife but male and female combination there, I think, gives a much clearer and more accurate picture of God’s character and who He is. And so, there are things that Katie is very good at that I am not and she fills in those gaps there and vice versa. We are much better person together than we are apart.
[Katie] Well, I think we learned this over time too because at the beginning, I’m a very driven person, semi-organized, getting more organized since we’re trying to implement some of the tidying up techniques in our home. It used to drive me crazy that he wasn’t like me in that area, it’s like I just thought you see the world through your own lens. And so, to me, the thought of not turning a paper in in time in college stressed me out so much that I think I wrote his paper for him because he’s just gonna turn it in the week it was due.
[Adam] It may have happened once.
[Katie] Just one time. But then there’s things that he is really good with people. I can sometimes be too blunt, he has a great way of making people feel like they’re important. And so, we’ve learned over time to appreciate the strengths in others instead of just trying to wish we were more like, they were more like us. I think we’ve looked at, okay, I have weaknesses and strengths, you have weaknesses and strengths and how can we blend these together to be more effective?
[Jennifer] I love that picture of complimenting each other in that way. And how God, He has a mission for all of us to do and work for all of us to do and each one of our marriages is so unique and yet, paired together, we compliment each other for all of those things and to be able to fulfill them.
[Aaron] Yeah and your guys’ marriage doesn’t seem anything like ours. I’m making a joke ’cause I, Jennifer is always like why won’t you just, I do it this way, why don’t you do it that way and we’ve had to get to this point of, well, I might do something differently and that’s gotta be okay sometimes. Now–
Learning to appreciate, knowing the value of that is really important.
[Aaron] Yeah.
[Jennifer] And I think that a marriage after God definitely has their eyes open to those differences and sees the value in them.
[Aaron] Yeah and also growing in them like there’s some things that we do need to change in, for sure. But that’s a really good testimony. Has there been any standout moments in your marriage? We’re talking about this stronger together, the unification, us moving in the same direction in one mind, one spirit in our marriage, has there been any standout moments in your marriage where you realize the two of you were stronger together? Any personal stories–
Well, for us, we are in vocational ministry, I know that’s not the case for everyone but we have led multiple camps together, like a youth camp. We do cousin camp with our nieces and nephews and just being able to tag team. If I just did it by myself, I’d be completely burned out by the end of the experience and same with him. But learning, I think, to let each other lead and we are not perfect at this by any means, we’re both first borns and a lot of times, stubbornness or determination, how ever you wanna spin it, comes with that.
Determination, so.
Yeah. So there are times when we butt heads and somebody bends so the other can lead but we kind of do this clumsy dance and learn how, are learning how to do that more and more. So I think, for us, ministering to kids has been a way that we’ve been able to do that. But I was just telling someone the other day, now that Adam is lead pastor, there are some changes we’re implementing at church but we also need mindful of the culture. But my tendency is like sweet, we can change a hundred things at once, won’t this be great? Well, it won’t be great because there’s a culture and you wanna respect that. And so, Adam’s help reminded me let’s celebrate the one thing that we’re doing right now. And so, for me, kind of my side writing and speaking thing gives me creative outlet to drive and go and get it done without driving him crazy that I’m putting all that energy into what he and I are doing together.
[Aaron] I like that. You guys have recognized that in the pursuit of what God’s doing, you’re stronger together when you allow the other person to operate in the strengths and gifts that they’ve given them in that proper order, I love that. And you also finding out, as a team, ways that you can have the other outlets in ministry so it’s still working together but even if it’s in different ways, does that make sense?
[Katie] Right, and like if I’m gonna go speak somewhere, do something outside the home, like a lot of times, Adam will watch the kids. And so, sometimes I think ministering together doesn’t always look like side by side, we’re both doing everything together–
[Adam] In the same physical space, yeah. It can be her, the things that God has called us to as a family, when she goes and speaks, we are ministering with her by allowing her to go do that and vice versa. Katie and the family allow me to go and minister to people by picking up and doing things that need to be done. And so, ministering together, again, I think that’s a good point. Ministering together doesn’t always mean that you are right side by side with each other but more allowing each other to minister within the calling that our family has and within the good things that each of have individually.
[Jennifer] That’s great, so for people listening, just as an encouragement to them, could you guys share maybe like one or two practical ways that a husband and wife can support each other in whatever thing that God is inviting them to do? Specifically, like how can a wife support her husband, how can a husband support his wife, practically?
[Adam] I mean, I think we’re walking through that right now, Katie writing and speaking is a relatively new thing over the last few years, three years maybe. Me and the kids supporting her looks like allowing her to have the time to go write and it’s our expectations, we take those expectations on, we take those things on so that that frees up her time to be able to go write. And there were multiple times when she was writing the book that she would just go away for the weekend and she was able to accomplish a lot of things and it was really time for her writing when she was able to do that. So trying to pick up some slack and take some of the responsibilities on so that she was allowed or able to go do that. And then also with her speaking now, it’s hey, we’ll be home, I’ve got the kids while she’s allowed to, she’s able to, not allowed to. It’s not like I’m giving–
That sounds–
[Adam] I’m giving permission to go do this. But she’s able to go do that and not have to worry about getting kids to soccer practice and swimming and these types of things where she can just go and focus on what God’s called her to do ministering to other people through the book and through speaking.
[Katie] And I think a big part of it is communication. It’s sitting down together as a couple and saying, what does God want our family to be about? I mean, Aaron, Jennifer, you guys are a great example of this, of you clearly know the mission God has put before you, it takes different forms at times, whether through podcast or encouraging people one on one or retreats or books or all of those kind of things. But I think asking God to help give you a vision for your family where He comes first, your marriage comes right under that, right? Marriage after God and–
Yeah.
[Katie] And communicating what is God calling us to and how do we pursue that in this season? I think there are different seasons in lives too where it can look differently. We’ve had an elderly friend and they had a vibrant prayer ministry and they did it from their recliners in their living room. And would call people and wish them a happy birthday and they were literally side by side in their living room doing that. But earlier on–
[Jennifer] That’s awesome.
[Katie] When they were younger, it looked like doing that in person. So I think knowing the vision for your family and then communicating what does this look like practically? If we’re gonna do this, what are we gonna say yes to and what are some things we’re gonna say no to so that we can serve together?
[Aaron] So, what you guys are saying right now is so perfect in the whole message of what we’re talking about in Marriage After God. And I just wanted to go back to, you were talking about how right now, this new season, and we love the seasonal mindset knowing that there’s gonna be seasons and like the Bible teaches us this and learning how to operate within seasons. And you guys were talking about right now, Katie, you’re writing and speaking, and Adam, you’ll stay home and let her go do that. And that only works, and I’m assuming ’cause, Katie, you brought up communicating but you guys sat down and said, what is that God wants to do? But then, are we in agreeance? It’s not like, Katie, I’m gonna be a speaker and a writer, let me do my thing. And, Adam, I’m gonna be doing this ministry over here, let me do my thing. That would conflict, you guys wouldn’t be able to get anything done which goes back to the quote of you guys being on the same page, communicating what’s the Lord doing right now this season? Writing and speaking and Adam’s like Amen, I agree and I’m gonna participate where I can to make that happen. Versus you both pursuing your ministries–
[Jennifer] Individually.
[Aaron] Individually in this heart of you’re in my way. And I love that you brought that up because some might be listening right now thinking God’s put this thing on my heart and I need to do it. And I don’t care if my husband, if he’s drug along or is out of the way or vice versa. No, I’m doing this thing over here and I don’t care what my wife’s at. Rather, hey, let’s lay it on the table, what’s God doing and let’s be on the same page with each other. ‘Cause then you can work as a team, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. And we just had a conversation yesterday, right outside the door here at church. And I had felt like God was leading me to write another book but Adam and the kids were not ready for that. And so, that was hard because sometimes you do feel that pull of God, sometimes it’s like I think God wants me to do this. But I talked to some mentors in my life and they said, you know, Katie, you have a Godly husband, Godly family, I don’t think that he’s gonna ask you to do something if your family’s in opposition. Like that doesn’t follow the model that God has laid out. Not to say that there’s definitely, everything’s not black and white. But so, my friend encouraged me like with Nehemiah, right? When he saw that the wall was broken down, he went and fasted and prayed before he went to the king. And so, my friend encouraged me like Katie, if you’re really feeling like God is wanting you to write this book, why don’t you fast and pray and then when you feel clear what God’s saying, go to your husband and talk to him about it, ask him what he thinks. And so, we just had this conversation yesterday because if your family isn’t on board, you are not gonna be stronger together, it’s going to be divisive. But when you’re on the same page, I mean, there’s a difference. There’s been times when we had adopted our fourth child and, I, again, felt from the Lord like we’re supposed to do this. But Adam was praying, he’s like I just don’t have a peace about it yet. For us to just go ahead and do that, like we would have been divided and disjointed but when the time was right and Adam’s like yes, I’m confident that we should do this. It was so much sweeter because we had that unity and that’s a picture of Christ and of the Trinity and what, He once used marriage as a picture that the world will know Him.
[Aaron] Yeah and I just, it’s perfect, it’s a beautiful illustration of what we’re talking about. Because to be honest, God could have put on your heart, might have put on your, did put on your heart that He wants you to write another book. But at the end of the day, He wants us to do the things He’s given us to do His way.
[Jennifer] And in His timing.
[Aaron] And in His timing. So it could have simply been, you’re gonna go this but I want you to walk this out well. And so, His challenge to you is to do it right versus, no, God’s told me to do something, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it my way, I’m gonna do it and everyone’s gotta get outta my way or jump on the train. And any one of us could do this, Adam could be walking this, I could be walking this, Jennifer could be walking this but God’s like just because I have something for you, doesn’t mean I have that thing for you right this moment. And we see that all throughout the Bible with Moses and the people of Israel. With all of the prophets not being able to see what they were promised.
[Jennifer] David anointed–
[Aaron] David and his anointing as a king. Like we see like, so it doesn’t mean it’s a no, it might mean it’s a yes but later. And I love the process that you guys walk through and we can all take from this example. Saying, okay, Lord, I feel this is something You put on my heart but even though You put it on my heart, I’m still going to offer it to You and ask that You show me how You want it done and when You want it done. And a part of that is getting counsel like you said and then going to your spouse and saying here’s what it is, what are we gonna do about this?
Fasting and praying.
Let’s pray about this together, let’s be on the same page. I wanted to encourage you, that was really good, I love that.
[Jennifer] So you’ve given us this picture of unity, you said being on the same page with each other makes us stronger together. Can you guys just talk a little bit about oneness and unity and how that makes us stronger for the ministry that God has for all of us?
[Adam] I mean, again, I think unity is so important in marriage, the enemy uses little things to drive wedges between us. And in Song of Solomon, I’m loving the Song of Solomon right now, that book is fantastic. There’s this message of catch the little foxes, it’s sometimes just the little things in a marriage that the enemy uses to drive a wedge between us and it’s important that we are communicating often and on the same page. Recognizing little things that we say, hey, this is something that we might wanna look at and pray about and talk about and maybe even we gotta get rid of this because it’s driving a wedge between us. There are things that we need to recognize and remove or at least be aware of and be communicating about to be able to stay unified. The other thing I was gonna say is, again, marriage being a picture of the church and Christ. And Christ being the bride/groom and the church being the bride and Christ wanting perfect unity between Him and the church. And, again, we’re sinful people. And so, that some day will be accomplished but that unification, that pure unadulterated unity is something that like Katie said before, the world is going to see Jesus by the way we do our marriages. And if we’re divided, that says something to the world about God and about Jesus and vice versa. If we’re unified and we’re on the same page and we’re communicating, that communicates something very important as well.
[Katie] I was just gonna add too, the other day, we had a really hard conversation because honestly, we are both tired, we have busy lives. And so, we would just kinda zone out on our phones at night and we are kind of slipping into this pattern of kind of coexisting, doing things during the day, kinda saying a few things and then like zoning out, escaping on our phones and then going to bed. And we had a hard conversation where there was lots of tears. Honestly, Adam, he’s a go with the flow guy but I know when he brings up something that I need to work on, it’s a big deal ’cause he waits a long till we have to say it. But we were just realizing like I could almost see this path we are going down of like had we kept going down that path, we would have lost a lot of that unity and oneness. Because honestly, unity and oneness is hard work. We have the Holy Spirit, obviously, to help us but it’s those hard decisions that aren’t always convenient and aren’t always comfortable but they bring him the most worry.
[Aaron] So, I was just thinking, Jennifer and I literally just had a conversation similar a couple nights ago. And with this book coming out and the podcast and all the things that we’re trying to be obedient in lately and with God. I was just mentioning to her, I was like hey, Jennifer, we need to be extra protective over our intimacy, over our time alone. Because in these seasons of us walking in obedience and chasing after these things, this is where we’re gonna be attacked, this is where we’re gonna lose focus. Is in our physical intimacy, in our spiritual intimacy, in our times alone when we should be recharging each other, being recharged in the word. And so, I just mentioned to her, I was like we need to be extra vigilant in protecting this part of our unity because if that goes, it doesn’t matter what else we do. And so, it sounds like we were on the same journey.
[Jennifer] Well, I think everyone listening too can relate to this ’cause as you were talking, Katie, I think I can picture all the listeners on their end looking at each other if they’re listening together as a couple. Well, with these downcast basis, like yeah, that’s us. Everybody has access to social media and their phones and other things too that get in the way of that intimacy–
[Aaron] That take our attention from each other.
[Jennifer] That take our attention away from each other and I love that you brought that up just as a reminder. So if everyone can just drop this note down, it would be to get our eyes off of our phones, off of the things that draw attention away from each other, look to each other and look to God of what He is doing. ‘Cause He is doing something in this world and He’s doing it through His people, He’s doing it through us. So I love that you brought that up and I appreciate the encouragement to other people. My next question for you guy, oh, go ahead.
[Adam] That’s not something that is kind of a one time conversation either, that’s something where sometimes–
Right.
It’s continual.
[Adam] Those conversations happen often because we can easily slip back into old patterns, we can easily slip back into things that are just easy and avoid the tough conversations and honestly, tough change and tough challenging. Katie, part of the reason Katie is in my life is to challenge me and make me better and vice versa. I believe that God brought me to her to make her better and together, we’re better. But changing the way that we are and changing the things that are easy takes work and it’s not fun. And so, a lot of times it’s easier just to escape into something else and just avoid those conversations. And that is a conversation, obviously, that could probably happen more often than it even does and would make us better, so.
[Aaron] Yeah, so, thinking about those conversations, those corrective course changing conversations that need to happen often. Our pastor always says in conversations about raising our children, 90% affirmation, 10% correction, those 10% corrections need to happen. Like you said the other night, you just were like hey, we’re at a point where this needs to be addressed and changed tonight. But the 90% affirmation side, how important and how integral has affirmation played a role in the building of unity in your marriage and for those listening that we need to be recognizing that affirmation is important? How does that look?
[Katie] Well, one example that comes to mind is actually with our kids, so I’m not the most tidy housekeeper as I may have alluded to early on. And so, when it’s time to clean, I kind of turn into like housezilla. It’s just like I’m barking orders, I’m like come on everybody! ‘Cause I’m so stressed by the amount of what needs to get done. So, my son, he’s 12, sometimes he’ll just stop and go, mom, you’re so beautiful. And later on I thought he’s being manipulative because it would change my attitude and all of a sudden, I would stop and realize how horrible I was being and when he pointed that out, it made me feel good inside. And so, the picture when, if Adam sends me a text just saying I appreciate you, I love you, period. It does, it builds into that and I’m more guilty of saying, hey, could you pick up this on your way home? And hey, how about this? But even when he goes and cashes his paycheck, trying to say thank you for working hard to provide for our family, just those little things in texting can be great with that. Sometimes even when you’re at your house, of course you wanna talk face to face but if you’re in the other room, just say, hey, I love you. I think that’s huge because those corrective things, if that’s happening all the time, it wears us down and we get discouraged. But building into our marriage in those ways, I don’t think can happen enough.
[Adam] That’s a good point, I think we can put so much weight and a burden on each other when we’re heavy on the corrective side of things and vice versa. We can really lighten things up and make things more alive and life-giving when we’re heavy on the affirmation side of things. And so, yeah, I think we both, that scenario, we can both grow in, for sure.
[Aaron] Yeah, us too. And it makes for, and so, affirmation is proaction and I see correction as reactive. So it’s the thing like well, when it’s necessary, we should do it ’cause correction needs to happen. But the affirmation makes a lot of the correction much less because we’re being affirmed in the correct directions. We’re being affirmed in the word of God, we’re being affirmed to continue in the faith and to continue in what we believe and what’s true. And how, like you said, you’re beautiful. And you’re like oh, I am beautiful and I need to be acting like what I am. Yeah, the affirmation is so important to us, just continue to move the right direction and keep our marriages and our ministries full of life and full of love and peace and joy. So, Jennifer, why don’t you ask this one last question and then we’ll get to the last last question.
[Jennifer] The last last question. Okay, so, in this chapter of Marriage After God, we share this idea of contrasting, what the world says about love. That you and me against the world so it’s kind of like internalized love versus God’s picture and desire for the mission of our marriage which is you and me for the world. What does this look like in your guys’ marriage?
[Katie] Well, first of all, I just love that idea, it’s powerful. And it reminds me of like let’s say you’re trying to push a big wheel, like if we’re pushing against each other, we’re gonna get nowhere. But if we get on one side of that wheel and push it, like my kids were helping me push my van that was stuck in the driveway this morning.
Oh no.
Oh no, ’cause the snow.
[Katie] You’re combining your strengths and I think there’s so much hostility and division out there in the world. I think, again, back to Nehemiah when they were trying to rebuild the wall, they said fight for your families. And I love the picture, it was all the people that were building this broken down wall, were doing it, it said, shoulder to shoulder. And I love that picture in marriage, are you serving shoulder to shoulder? Again, whether you’re in the same room or not, are you going towards one goal which is to honor God?
[Aaron] Yes, yes.
[Katie] Because we’ve had friends recently die, like several and it’s reminding of how fleeting life is. And God has given each marriage a purpose and that purpose could look different but all of purposes combined are to advance the kingdom. And like you said, husband and wife for the things of God.
[Adam] I think what I would say to that is it sometimes take a change of mindset as well. Because we as Christians, it can be very easy to slip into a mindset of oh, the world is attacking my faith, the world is attacking my God, the world is attacking me, the culture is doing these things. And so, it can be very easy to get defensive and put walls up and say, okay, you’re attacking me, I’m coming after you. When really the mindset that God has given us is He said don’t be surprised when this stuff happens, they hated Me. Jesus said they hated Me and they’re going to hate you because you’re aligned with Me. But He also said lay down your life for those people, sacrifice for those people, serve those people. And so, it could just take, again, conversations, how are we becoming more passionate to be like Jesus in loving and laying down our life for the world? As opposed to how do protect ourselves against the world?
[Jennifer] I love that perspective. And I also can’t get that imagine of pushing a wheel out of my mind, I love imagery. And so, that’s really powerful to me and I just think of husband and wife on either side like you said, Katie. And as pushing with all of our force and using all of our strength and then feeling super defeated because it has not moved at all, it doesn’t work. And so–
Well, actually, to take that analogy further, when one does get weak, what happens? The wheel rolls right over ’em. And so, we harm our marriage and instead of working in the same direction and actually getting somewhere, we also don’t destroy our marriage. We don’t destroy our partner, our spouse, the one that God’s given us to be one with, so those are great–
Perspectives.
Perspectives, yeah. So let’s get to this last question, we’ve asked this to everyone. In your own words, what is a marriage after God?
[Katie] Rock, paper, scissors.
[Adam] We’re both playing it to tell ya, hey, you take the part of this one. But I think, again, I love the duality of the title there, a Marriage After God, meaning we’re seeking to follow God, we’re seeking to be in alignment with His design for marriage, we’re seeking to be in alignment in His purpose for marriage. But we’re also, lost my train of thought there, but–
[Katie] Well, that we want our marriage to be, go ahead. I was just gonna say, we want God to be first, right? Our marriage comes after God but then we also want our marriage to pursue God and the things of God. ‘Cause like bed, this life is but a vapor and there’s eternity if we are in Christ, we will live eternally with Him but we really have a limited time on this Earth. And there’s so many petty things, I think Elizabeth Elliot, I’ve heard through the grapevine she had said this. That I think Jim Elliot, her husband who is martyred, he used to snore. Well, that could have been the thing that just drove her crazy but then afterwards, when her husband wasn’t there, she missed that snoring. I always joke with Adam that he’s gonna miss when I’m gone because I fall asleep during movies and he’s not convinced that he will miss that. But I think it’s do you want an internal perspective–
[Aaron] Jennifer, you fall asleep during movies too.
[Katie] Is God the head of our marriage? Is He giving us our directives and are we going after the things He’s laid before us?
Amen.
Amen and amen. That is so awesome, thank you so much for answering that. And just so you guys know, we’re super encouraged by you and the ministry that is coming out of your marriage. You guys compliment each other so well and the Lord’s using it to impact this world for His kingdom. And so, we’re cheering you on and we just wanna give you an opportunity to share a little bit more about where people could follow along, you guys do these awesome interviews together. So why don’t you share a little bit about that.
[Katie] Well, first of all, thanks so much for having us and I hope everyone gets a copy of Marriage After God, I know it’s gonna be a wonderful resource to strengthen marriages, so–
Thank you.
You’re welcome. So we do a live show called Stop Hammock Time, 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday evenings on Facebook Live and you can find that if you go to Katie M, M as in Martha, Reid, R-E-I-D on Facebook. And we do those, and sometimes it’s just Adam and I, sometimes you interview people. We have a great interview with you guys on there but it’s a way to encourage marriages. And then we also have a Facebook group called Hammock Time Hangout Hub and we just kind of go a little deeper with the people in that group and share things like about your guys book or about an article we read or a question. But we just wanna encourage couples to grow closer in the relationship with the Lord and the relationship with each other.
[Aaron] Awesome, we thank you guys and we’re gonna go into a time of prayer for a second and then we’re gonna close out.
[Adam] Yeah.
[Aaron] Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of companionship. Marriage is such an intimate friendship that blesses us. We desire to draw closer to each other and to use the intimate mind to bless your name. Thank you for being intertwined in our relationship and at the center of it. You’re the reason we are stronger together. Please continue to strengthen us as a chord of three strands. We pray that you would use us to do hard things as we build up your body and build up your kingdom. Be our strength as we persevere. May we be intentional in encouraging each other in marriage so that we do not grow weary. We pray against the enemy, we pray against his ways. Thank you for being our refuge and our shield. Thank you for equipping us and empowering us to stay strong and to fulfill Your will. May Your will be done in us and through our marriage in Jesus’ name.
[All] Amen.
[Aaron] Hey, so we just wanna thank you guys for joining us. And we wanna thank everyone that has been listening. We pray that this conversation has blessed you and your marriage and we pray that your conversations will be fruitful from this conversation. And you know what, we have one more episode in this series. So please stay tuned and we look forward to having you next week. Did you enjoy today’s show? If you did, it would mean the world to us if you could leave us a review on iTunes. Also, if you’re interested, you can find many more encouraging stories and resources at marriageaftergod.com and let us help you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.
