We've only just begun

Well we're about a week and a half into marriage and so far, so much better (than not being married).

Wednesday night, we were in a cab home from the airport talking about how it's been hard to find a description for what it feels like to be married. We settled on FREE.

As a person who has been a Christian long enough to know what it's like to feel cool carrying a Bible around in a zipper cover with handles that matched my bold flare for 90's style - I know that being in a relationship with God can go from feeling constricting and convicting to full and free pretty quickly. It's a heart change I fully made just before I turned twenty. 

Whether your relationship with God is running on fumes or you have no idea who God is - it's easy to feel like living a life in accordance with his will for you would be boring and feel limited by rules. As a person who abides in Jesus, I know the opposite to be true... That a life sans discipline feels more like death than really living. I know what life without Jesus feels like - bound by the weight of my own unwise choices. I know that a life with Him feels like peace in the chaos. 

We hear people make comments about marriage being a big scary commitment. We hear people joke about being "tied down" by their spouse or the covenant of marriage. But we don't hear much about how entering into a forever promise with a spouse can also feel like someone giving you keys to freedom the way God designed it. 

When you're in a dating or engaged relationship, you are working on being selfless. It's your trial run for what you think forever could look like with this person staring at you across the dinner table. With God at the center of your newest familial venture, it's not only beneficial to put the needs & hopes of your spouse before your own but it's actually necessary in obedience to who Jesus is in our own hearts. 

I am the first person to admit that relationships are damn difficult! Opposite opinions and interests run rampant and we're freaking married and still don't agree on how to spend a day off work. But there's a worthiness in all the disagreements. A peace in knowing you're both IN all the way. A built in best friend who is super fun to make out with. 

So... this idea of "grace" becomes something to really rely on. Grace for each other but also the grace of God to permeate our home and decision making. 

May grace & freedom be made known in your relationships, choices, and outcomes. It isn't easy work, but a garden wouldn't be beautiful without diligent tending.