Transparency

so, i've gotten a lot of advice from those of you who have been reading this so far, and the consensus is that people can benefit from me sharing my story. i've been nervous because i didn't know if it was "wrong" to admit our problems or if i should keep them hidden. i think that's my old fundamentalist mindset leaking into my thinking. how can we learn from each other and grow with each other if we aren't transparent? why do we think we are the only people in the world struggling with sin?! just from the few people i have talked to about my situation, i have had people open up to me about their own struggles in marriage. guess what? you are not alone!

all of this to say, follow my blog, even if i don't know you. be transparent; even if i don't know you. we can help each other. do some of the "love dares" i will be posting, and let us know how it goes. again, we must see our faults as they really are. big, fat, ugly chunks of sin. having a God-centered marriage begins with us seeing our sin as God sees it, and confessing our sin as an act of worship. God delights in hearing us confess our sin! and then, we confess our sins to our spouses; ask for forgiveness.

as we are being transparent, i received some words of wisdom from a wise friend. :)

1.  make sure we are pointing our dialogue to Christ and not ourselves.

2. make sure we are not hurting anybody else involved. i don't want to say anything on here that would make my husband uncomfortable. i'm not here to write about his problems anyway, but about mine.

you don't have to stay stagnant. you don't have to wonder if this is really all there is to life. GOD has changed my marriage and he can change yours too. His love for you and me is overwhelming. oh how i don't deserve it.

Phil. 2:1-11

"So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, and participation in the Spirit, and affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing (yes, it says NOTHING) from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above EVERY name, so that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!!!" 


Wow.