Let's Parent on Purpose: Christian Marriage, Parenting, and Discipleship 139 Marriage on Mission with Jenny Price
Today we are talking with my friend, Jenny Price, and an incredible, practical tool for couples to strengthen their marriage called Marriage on Mission. Jenny is a Pastor’s wife, mother of five, and coach who is passionate about building healthy marriages. The Marriage on Mission tool is one that will help you and your spouse dream, plan and sharpen your direction in a healthy way.
If you find this podcast helpful, you can subscribe and click here to find past topics and free resources. Feel free to share with others, as well! If you would like to help support Let’s Parent on Purpose, you can do so by becoming a patron.
I send a weekly email called “Things for Thursday” and it includes things I’ve found helpful related to parenting, marriage, and sometimes just things I find funny! You can sign up for “Things for Thursday” by joining my newsletter on my homepage.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
No matter what stage your marriage is in, if you can get your marriage on mission, you can push toward health.
- Marriage is the one thing that is definitively shaping our nation. It is not government or healthcare; it is growing healthy marriages.
- You do not have to simply endure a hard marriage. Putting your marriage on mission will help it grow healthy and thrive.
- Everything stems from relationships. The fruit of your relationship with your spouse will have a long-lasting impact after you are gone.
The most important concept to remember concerning your marriage is that the ultimate mission is not to stay married or have a good marriage. If your marriage is the most important thing to you, it has become an idol. If marriage is the highest priority, you are depending on your spouse to satisfy things that only God can satisfy. There is no person to complete you, and if you are looking to your spouse to do that, you are setting them up for something they are incapable of doing. Your marriage should be a blessing and an absolute source of joy, but it is not your core identity and it is not the main source of joy in your life.
Marriage should be combined with:
- Ministry
- Careers
- Eternity
So, where should one start to get their marriage on mission? The following steps are part of the Marriage on Mission tool. I encourage you to print the full resource out as it contains additional details that will help you and your spouse get the most out of the exercise!
- Ask yourself where you are right now.
- You can’t work on where you want to go without knowing where you are starting from.
- Talk to your spouse about where they are.
- Sometimes, one spouse might feel they are in one place and the other has a totally different take on it. We all carry presumptions!
- It should not scare us if one feels the relationship is in a better place than the other. Evaluating where you both are should not be an exercise in ascribing worth to the other.
- Do vision-casting exercises. This exercise takes about an hour and a half and is great for a date night:
-
- Spend 5 minutes praying and getting into context.
- Spend 20 minutes individually writing your 1 year vision. This resource provides a number of questions you can use for this step.
- Read what each other has written.
- Pay attention to the similarities and differences you discover.
- Set S.M.A.R.T goals. These should stretch us and push us.
-
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Risky
- Timely
- Focus on eternity.
- Long for God. He is the goal!
- Think: My marriage matters because of the legacy that God is building in me.
- Is my marriage pointing others to Christ?
- Set a mission statement rooted in scripture.
- Find a scripture passage that you want your family to be about and live by it.
TWEET THIS
Everything stems from relationships.
Click To Tweet
Your marriage should be a blessing and an absolute source of joy, but it is not your core identity and it is not the main source of joy in your life.
Click To Tweet
My marriage matters because of the legacy that God is building in me.
Click To Tweet
RESOURCES MENTIONED
The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis
Let’s Parent on Purpose Facebook Page
Episode 50: Depression and Anxiety in Parenting and Marriage