Lost in Faith

The most important, or at least that’s what we tell ourselves, relationships in our lives, our mates, get little of our emotional resources.  We attend training seminars to improve our professional skills, take lessons to improve our hobbies but who among us has a yearly goal of improving their marriage.  Wait!  A yearly goal and a plan that they execute on a regular basis.

 One of the side benefits of the Leadership Track at Shoal Creek (when both husband and wife is on it) are the books that we read together.  Once in awhile we read a marriage book but with many singles in our midst we try to avoid a steady diet of book on matrimony.  But even books like Dan Allenders’ The Healing Path, provides rich ground for marital discussion.

But what about the two of you reading a book together.  Gary Thomas’ Sacred Marriage or if you dare, Larry Crabb’s Marriage Builder.  I am not a fan of formula marriage books which includes most of them.  The book must challenge the internal structures that you’ve built and lead you to the mysterious work of the spirit which evidences itself in sorrow that leads to repentance.  These books perform a Hosea 2:14 function, they allure us into the desert which usually means pain, heartache, and sorrow.  We see ourselves and we don’t like it yet instead of turning away we contemplate the ugliness we see how it impacts our life with God.  We sit with it like a good brandy and sip it all the way down.  As we do that God’s tender mercy convinces us once again that we are his beloved.  The historical Easter become the a personal experience and once again we can love and laugh and live together.

For those new working on your relationship Dave and Claudia Arp’s Ten Great Dates would be a great place to start.