Marriage Resources

If you are considering marriage, God did not leave you on your own to discover how to succeed. He has given you everything required to have a healthy relationship from the very beginning.

If you are considering marriage, I want to caution you in the right type of way. You can have a healthy marriage, but you both have to hold to one central focus to succeed.

Nothing can bring strain to a newly married couple like debt. Do what you can to reduce debt together and enjoy the freedom you were meant to experience.

Our hobbies can easily become our obsessions when we spend more thoughts, time, effort, and money on them than anything else. Learn to like your hobbies and love your spouse.

Exodus 20:14 – The seventh commandment warned the people against breaking marriage vows and entangling themselves in forbidden relationships. To avoid adultery, we must cherish marriage.

Marriage cannot work if someone has a higher priority than the spouse. There must be a thorough yet healthy leaving of one’s initial family and a complete and eager cleaving of one’s unique spouse.

Plan for a daily connection, a weekly date, and a yearly getaway for your marriage. If any or all of those three seem impossible to obtain, that reveals how great the need is.

No person can navigate life successfully by attempting it alone. We need one another, and marriage is one of God’s gifts to address our loneliness.

If your spouse has hurt you, the issue must be addressed, but avoid showing frustration to one another for things other people have done. Don’t permit unfair marital frustration.

If you’ve been in a dating relationship for some time, you might consider if this path is leading toward marriage. While relational compatibility and others’ approval are helpful, you must determine if God thinks your relationship is worthwhile.

Every person needs to be aware of the little foxes scampering around his or her marriage. All marriages have specific minor issues that will turn into major issues if the couple refuses to address them.

So many engaged couples are prepared for a wedding but not a marriage. If you are considering marriage, you must prioritize preparing in a way that will keep you married.

Why do some couples make it and others don’t? Undeniably, some marriages end because they never experienced a healthy beginning.

Before you hop into the getaway car at your wedding reception, realize that you will have some unfortunate baggage. We each carry evidence of Eden’s eviction behind us.

For every single person, our sin disrupts our relationship with God and others. Without intervention, there is no hope for us, but in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can find mercy for our transgressions and meaning in our brokenness.

When Adam and Eve first sinned, it changed everything for them and us. God counseled them during the event and led them through the fallout. We can’t hide from the reality of what our sin costs nor can we overlook His grace through it.

You will sin. Your spouse will sin. What will you do when it happens? The first couple paved the way for us to repeat, unfortunately. They immediately hid from God and framed others in the awareness of their guilt.

Your marriage would be much easier if sin weren’t in the picture. Unfortunately for you and your spouse, it is unavoidable. Your marriage can survive if you work together to navigate temptation, sin, and restoration when it all happens.

God’s original command to the first couple was to be fruitful and multiply. It was a call to take what He had given them in order to use it and multiply it to the best of their God-given abilities. God is up to something, and your marriage can be a part of it.

To have a healthy marriage, you must consider numerous components. One area that is rarely discussed from a scriptural perspective is the role sexual intimacy is intended to play. We must reorient ourselves to God’s perspective.

Marriage cannot work if someone has a higher priority than the spouse. There must be a thorough yet healthy leaving of one’s initial family and a complete and eager cleaving of one’s unique spouse. It is essential.

God designed marriage to provide a helper because He knew that, even before sin, we needed someone to walk beside us in life. We aren’t wired to navigate life alone. In our need, He offers us a companion.

God did not invite us to embark upon the journey of marriage unprepared without the instructions required to bring it safely onto the shore. The Bible provides the knowledge we need to succeed in marriage.

You were created by God for a certain purpose. And every person in this world will either encourage you to fulfill that purpose or discourage you from that calling. Out of all your relationships, there is none more serious than your spouse.

If God created marriage, we should assume His perspective would be superior to the wisdom of an expert or any amount of experience. You can avoid specific marital issues by simply learning and applying the truths of God’s Word.

Just (About) Married is a premarital resource to help individuals study, couples discuss, and then a counselor unpacks the concepts to prepare for marriage. I pray it can help your upcoming marriage or counseling ministry.

Next to your decision to follow Jesus, there is no more critical of a decision than if and who you will marry. While you may find yourself lovestruck at some point in your life, it is essential that you have considered God’s role in your potential marriage.

I am so happy to share with you that Just (About) Married, a premarital book for intentional couples, is available today. I’ve had a burden for years to develop a resource that would assist couples in our church to better prepare for marriage, and it is finally complete.

Just (About) Married is a book intended to guide a couple to prepare for more than a wedding. In these 8 chapters, driven by concepts in Genesis 1-3, a couple or a counselor can better prepare the upcoming marriage.

You might be going to the chapel, but are you prepared for the marriage? So many people spend an unthinkable amount of time planning a 30-minute ceremony and a 2-hour reception but fail to prepare for what should be a lifelong marriage.

When you feel the pressure to conform to your spouse’s wishes that conflict with God’s commands, you cannot surrender. For the good of your marriage, you must keep God first.

We neglect real wisdom when we refuse to be intentional in learning from others. That’s why I cannot overstate the benefit of planting your marriage in a healthy church.

Your marriage needs healthy support around it in the form of consistent, Christlike friendships. If you want your marriage to strive, ensure that you have people around you who desire the same thing.

Many people have initial standards for dating and marriage, but when the candidate pool decreases, an urgency to find someone increases. Don’t settle for less than God’s best.

A married couple can agree in the majority of areas of their lives together, but if they don’t stay aligned in their parenting, the entire family will feel the stress. What happens when spouses disagree in their roles as parents?

Every person craves the ability to be truly authentic with one other individual in life. Marriage is the God-given environment in which we should be able to be completely exposed yet surprisingly accepted.

If you aren’t careful, certain differences regarding finances can frustrate a marriage in significant ways. Here are 5 financial differences that can challenge your marriage and what you can do about it.

No marriage deteriorates overnight, but it can suffer due to a gradual drift. If you don’t address your marriage separators, you are unfortunately inviting the gap to widen. 

One of the greatest threats to sexual purity and marital intimacy is the exposure of immoral material present in our society. Being a member of this culture ensures that you have been exposed to sinful content and suggestive comments that distort sexual sanctity.

Once you are married, you must reprioritize every relationship in your life to be subordinate to the unique and exclusive relationship with your spouse. This shift doesn’t mean that you end all other relationships, but you must reprioritize them.

Our world needs to know God’s Word on marriage. If He created it, then surely He should have the right to define it. Out of all the places you can turn to discover God’s heart regarding marriage, I believe this section is the most important place to study.

Within his carefully crafted manual, God teaches me everything I need to start marriage well and to see it to completion. So, why do I resist learning from Him and try to do it on my own?

Evaluating your parents’ marriage can drastically improve your own. This needed process will allow you to unpack some needed lessons and clarify some genuine expectations with your spouse.

So, why do you want to get married in the first place? And what makes you think you have the right person in a world full of potential candidates?

After Adam and Eve’s sin, God did not hide from sharing the truth and delivering the consequences. Sin’s effects on marriage are undeniable, but God’s guidance is unmistakable. 

When Adam and Eve sinned, they were inclined to hide in shame and point in blame. All marriages can fall into the same trap of refusing responsibility for sin.

God gave this first couple one commandment, and they quickly made compromises in order to break it. In all marriages, we are called to help each other fulfill God’s Word over meet our expectations.

The temptation of adultery does a masterful job of highlighting the momentary pleasure while disguising the long-term pain. You must be careful to avoid a trap of falling for anyone who does not belong to you.

If you are married or engaged, use these questions to unite around a critical component in marriage — finances.

As God placed His stamp upon Adam and Eve, He intended them to spread that image throughout the world. He calls families to be fruitful and multiply through their homes.