God and Me-Marriage Enrichment

This weekend, D and I had the luxury of attending an event put on by Nebraska's Fellowship of Christian Athletes. We went last year too. The group believes that coaches have been put into positions of incredible influence as they work with literally hundreds of high school kids. They also believe that in order for coaches to effectively minister to the kids they work with, coaches need to be supported and encouraged and that this includes in their marriages.

To be honest, it is not easy to be a coach's spouse. Teaching in itself can mean long hours. School hours may be 8-3:30 but most teachers are there early and go home late. And coaches start another job at 3:30. Depending on the day, coaches stay until 6 or, if it's a game day, stay until 9 or 10. When your spouse's sport is in season, it's a lot of long days for them and a lot of time apart.

But on the flip side, being a coach's wife is a blessing. I could never ask my husband to give up coaching. It's just one of those things that is too special to him to ask that. He loves interacting with his boys. He loves getting to "hang on" to his youth by playing soccer. And it makes me incredibly proud to watch him work tirelessly and give of himself because he loves his boys. He does study halls in season and out of season for kids who need some motivation on the grade front. He organizes soccer events in the summer not just so the kids are keeping active in soccer but because he knows his kids come from varied backgrounds and are in need of shared experiences, shared jokes, shared moments in time that will help them become teammates and, in some ways, like a family. He gets that life is not just about soccer or having the world view you as successful and he tries to show his boys the big picture. I just love watching it unfold.

This weekend was just a good time to reflect on our family and our marriage, on what direction we are headed.

Some words I found especially true:

Your spouse is God's perfect provision for you. Not God's perfect person for you, but His perfect provision.

If a package arrives at your door, cash due on delivery, you might be thrown off by the unknown and tempted to discard it. But once you recognize the sender, if you trust the sender, you will receive the package. Spouses are packages that come with a lot of unknowns but once you recognize that they are a gift from God, it should be easy to receive them because you know Who the giver is.

Have you been reconciled to God, through Christ? If so, then you are called to the ministry. All who are reconciled are in the ministry. From 2 Cor. 5:19 "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation..." So good to be reminded that because we are redeemed, we automatically have a ministry.