Acknowledging Christ in Your Relationship

If 2 are better than 1, than 3 (God, husband, & wife) are best

Recently my husband and I decided to start reading the Bible together before we go to bed. Studying God's Word together is something we've been neglecting for quite awhile and that needed to change.

I just wanted to share some of the ups and downs of our newest endeavor. I know what you're thinking. What are the "downs" of reading the Bible together? Let's find out.

Our first mistake was thinking this was going to come easy. After all, we're setting out to better our relationship with God and with one another. Piece of cake, right? Wrong. We argued through our first night of our new Bible study. We didn't think to communicate before we got started. We each had preconceived notions as to how this whole thing was going to play out and what we'd like to get from it. And we just assumed the other was thinking the same things.

It took us awhile, but we figured out we weren't united in this. He wanted to read a chapter then go back verse by verse closely examining the meaning. I wanted to read a chapter then talk about the overall lesson. After reading James 1, I started jumping all over the place with my thoughts. I would talk about some notes that I had previously written in my Bible about the verses at the end of the chapter then run back to the beginning to talk about a verse that really resonated with me. This understandably frustrated my husband. But I didn't really want to closely analyze each individual verse in order like he did.

Once we figured out why we were at each other's throats over reading the Bible (which I never thought would happen), we started talking. We told each other what we wanted to accomplish in our time with God each night. We came to the agreement that I can talk about the verses in whatever order I want, as long as I tell him what verse I'm talking about. And we discovered that digging deeper into a few verses is actually really fun. We read the notes at the bottom of our pages and look up corresponding verses.

I guess the moral of our mistake is communication is key. If you want to start a new routine or activity together, talk about it first. Figure out what your goals are and how you can help each other achieve them. Don't think that because it's a "simple" task that it will come easily.

Let's end this post on an "up"! My absolute favorite part of reading the Bible together is I get to listen to the Word of God through my husband. Hearing him read out loud has changed my feelings for him in such an amazing way. We've started to acknowledge Christ's presence in our relationship (He was always there, but we're starting to celebrate that) and it's bringing all three of us closer together.

Here's some ideas to help you acknowledge Christ in your life and relationships:
- Spend time reading the Bible alone and together every day.
- Pick a new worship song to share with one another once a week & listen to it together
- Send a text/write a note with an encouraging verse

God Bless,