#1 - Inviting God into Your Marriage – A Blueprint for Lasting Love

In this powerful episode of The Stronger Deeper Marriage Show, we dive into Chapter 1 of my book, That Secret Sauce: Essential Ingredients for Creating an Exceptional Marriage – "Seek God First." Marriage can be challenging, but when we invite God to lead and build our relationship on His foundation, everything begins to shift.

Join me as we discuss how seeking God’s direction strengthens not only our connection with Him but also the bond we share with our spouse. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, disconnected, or like your marriage could use a reset, this episode will inspire you to realign with God’s purpose for your relationship.

Let’s explore how to navigate challenges, grow together spiritually, and create a marriage rooted in faith, love, and divine guidance. Don't miss this heartfelt and transformative conversation!

Transcript

Lucille Reddic: 0:03

What's going on, everyone? Welcome to the Stronger, Deeper Marriage Show. My name is Lucille Reddick and I've been married for over 39 years. For more than 20 years, I've been coaching married men and women, as well as those who hope to get married in the future, to create blissful marriages. I travel around the country speaking about healthy marriage relationships, and I am the author of That Secret Sauce, Essential Ingredients for Creating an Exceptional Marriage book. This is your go-to source for building a thriving marriage? filled with long-lasting happiness, peace, purpose, and passion. Join us, whether you're a woman or a man, as we navigate the journey to a stronger, more fulfilling relationship without the fear of vulnerability and rejection. In this episode, I want to talk to you about a section from my book. So let's dive in. We're going to explore Chapter 1, Seek God First. Now, this chapter emphasizes the importance of seeking God's direction and strength to build a strong foundation for our marriage, especially when challenges arise. Chapter 1 opens with a powerful scripture from Matthew 6, 33. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. Now, seeking God first is crucial because it sets the foundation for everything that in our marriage. When disillusionment begins to set in, remind yourself that God designed marriage. Now let me share a personal story about disillusionment. Now let's define disillusionment first. According to Google's dictionary, disillusionment is a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it would be. And I first felt this in my marriage within about the first month. However, just a couple of months later, I was back to feeling the love and joy of our relationship. I once heard a speaker at church say that marriage has cycles. Love comes around and goes around. You just have to hang around until it comes back around. And looking back, I can see several times when we were in disillusionment, And just as many times when we were back to love and joy. It's true. Marriage has a cycle. Now, unfortunately, it's impossible to stay in a place of love and joy forever. But I've realized that when we're in disillusionment, it's a perfect time to put more effort into our marriage. Many couples... gets so discouraged during this time that it leads to divorce. Now, while I know there are exceptions, I believe many marriages could be saved by doing simple things. And as an example, if you're unsure of what to do for your spouse, focus on their love language. You really can't go wrong with that. And if you don't know your partner's love language, I encourage you to look it up. And you can also stay tuned because there will be an episode on love languages. So now in the subchapter of the first chapter of my book, it's titled Yield to God. And in that subchapter, we discuss why it's essential to yield to God. Now Psalms 24 and 1 reminds us, the earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. Recognizing that everything belongs to God helps us to set the right foundation for our marriage. It's easier to give control to God if we're not holding on to it ourselves. How many of you are still holding on to your marriage? I was. I encourage you to give it to God and become a faithful steward of your marriage relationships. I must admit, I wasn't a good steward of my marriage in the beginning. It took time and commitment and prayer to become a good steward of my marriage relationship. We both had to learn that we're on the same team. We have different roles depending on what season of life we're in, but we're both working towards the same goals. Marriage is a marathon, not a sprint. Now, the first marriage in Eden highlights the characteristics of a godly marriage where a husband and wife become one flesh. They remain as two individuals, but become one in their purpose, sharing the same values, goals, and outlook. They work together to build a strong family. God created humans with an innate need and desire for the close bond that marriage provides. Yielding to God involves praying for your spouse, praying for yourself, praying for those around you. I asked the Lord to help me to see my spouse the way he sees him. Because what I was focused on was only the things that I thought were negative characteristics. And I've since discovered that those negative characteristics that I considered to be negative were actually good because they balance out my characteristics. I was really disappointed at this time that things weren't going the way I had envisioned them. You see, all of the movies and books had led me to believe that my marriage would be happy and blissful all the time. I wanted everything to be smooth and easy. I didn't expect conflict. Looking back on it now, it seems strange. How could there not be conflict? We're two different people coming together to mesh our lives together. We had to learn how to work together on projects, agree on parenting issues, Learn how to share similar values on how to spend and save money without arguing about it. We wanted to learn how to like the same people and establish some friendships with other couples. And another thing we had to learn was how to always be ready for physical intimacy. And I didn't say we always had physical intimacy, but always be open and ready for it. These things don't happen overnight. We might think it would be better if we didn't have to work through our differences. But I want you to consider that the struggle, effort, and sacrifice actually deepens our love for each other. The struggle is teaching us patience. Marriage is a lifelong commitment that cannot be rushed. Just like training and running a marathon, it requires dedication and discipline to push through the difficult times. Ecclesiastes 9.9 states, enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your futile life, which he has given you under the sun. Another verse, Malachi 2 and 16 reminds us, Now these scriptures emphasize that God's desire is for marriage to be a lifelong commitment. Now you might be saying to yourself, Lucille, I hear you, but I'm not there mentally or spiritually right now. I understand there was a time when I wasn't there either. Do you want to know what changed everything for me? It was the story of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. God provided for them, but they kept complaining and murmuring. Their faith wasn't strong. Deuteronomy 29, five and six says that for 40 years, their clothes and sandals didn't wear out. Now that verse really spoke to me. And I know people think, well, that's strange. That's such an odd verse. But if God took care of something so small, such as clothes and shoes or sandals, didn't wear out for 40 years, in my mind, that was a miracle. I interpreted that miracle as God saying, even when things got difficult for them, he was saying, I'm still with you. I haven't left you. And if he did it for them, I believe he will do it for me. That realization turned everything around for me. And here we are in our 39th year of marriage, happier than when we first got married. The Lord turned everything around for us. And I'm here to let you know that if he did it for us, he can do it for you. Now, let me summarize three main takeaways from what I've shared with you. I said, seek God first in your marriage, setting the foundation that seeking God first is crucial. This aligns your relationship with his purpose and helps you navigate through times of disillusionment with faith and commitment. Number two, marriage has cycles. Embrace and work through them. Recognize that marriage naturally goes through cycles of love and disillusionment. Embrace these cycles and use challenging times to put more effort into your relationship. Focus on your spouse's love language and work as a team to build a stronger bond. Number three, yield to God and be a good steward. Yielding control to God and becoming a faithful steward of your marriage can transform your relationship. Pray for your spouse. Focus on positive traits and understand that the struggle and effort deepen your love and commitment, leading to a fulfilling and lasting marriage. I'd like to pray for our marriages right now. Dear Lord, thank you. that you first demonstrated to me what love, true love is. You modeled it by giving your son, Jesus Christ, as ransom for our sins. Lord, give us grace, Father, to love willingly and continually, even when we don't feel as if our spouse is meeting our needs. Love is not conditional. Love forgives, love believes, Love endures. Love never fails. Thank you for modeling that to us every day. In Christ's name, amen. That's a glimpse into chapter one of my book, That Secret Sauce, Essential Ingredients for Creating an Exceptional Marriage. That's all for today's episode of the Stronger, Deeper Marriage Show. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I appreciate each and every one of you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's episode please make sure to like and subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and if you know someone who could benefit from our discussion share the podcast with them. If you received value from today's episode please tell others about the show and for more valuable content about relationships sign up for my newsletter join us next time as we continue to explore ways to strengthen and deepen your marriage until then keep striving for a marriage full of peace purpose and passion until next time bye