Monday's Marriage Moment - It Didn't Just Happen To Me. It Happened FOR Me. Thank You!

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
-Genesis 50:20

Can you consider the possibility that the hard things you have had to face in marriage (and in life) produced something great in you? I know. Those things hurt like nobody's business, but I want you to shift your perspective for just a minute. Take your focus off of the pain, and put it on what it produced.

Your marriage, and your husband, has helped you to become the person that you are today. If you are anything like me, your marriage has taught you how to pray more sincerely. Your husband has highlighted some issues in your heart that you would have preferred not to face. Being married has made you less selfish and more selfless. It has taught you to see the big picture, to care about someone else's feelings and not just your own, to see that you actions affect more than just you.

See, the devil meant for those issues, those challenges, those heartbreaks, and those setbacks to destroy you. He meant for them to end your marriage, and for some of you, end your life, but today we can stand in victory declaring that we made it through everyone of them...and we have come out better!

So, it didn't just happen to me. It happened for me. Every challenge I've faced and overcome has made me better, stronger, and wiser! Now, I can help someone else. Now, I can show someone else the way. Now, I can lead someone else through the valley of the shadow of death.

Now, I can say thank you. I had a hard time saying it when the tears were streaming down my face. I had a hard time saying it when I wondered if my marriage was going to work. I had a hard time saying it when it seemed like we never had enough, but today I can say it with passion! The tears that stream today aren't flowing because of sadness, but they are flowing because of joy.

God used every obstacle, and for that I say thank you!

Can you think of obstacles that you overcame in marriage? Will you take a moment and thank God for His ability to grow us in even the darkest of places?