{If you missed the first part yesterday, please read it first!}

We turned several corners during our first years of being married, but there was sometimes a bit of animosity between us. Our problem, unbeknownst to either of us, was that we had yet to become ONE.

We each were doing our best in the marriage, but it was still each of us trying to be what we thought we ought to be.

Several years ago, all of this changed. To me there was no defining moment, but God really began to work on MY heart.

Much of this previous time I would dwell on the other half of the equation, when the real problem was staring at me in the mirror.

God spoke to me saying, “John, quit looking at your wife and all of her flaws, cuz you my son, are NOT all of that either.”

The problem was, I was dwelling on my wife and what SHE needed to change and not on me, myself, and I. WOW!!

It was NOT my wife that was the problem, but my own pride that was the problem.

Thus began the journey of just allowing God to change MY life so I could become what He wanted me to be.

After all, God knows exactly what my wife needs in and from me, and if I allow God to change me, then I am becoming not only what God wants and needs me to be, but what my wife wants and needs me to be as well.

As my wife often says to me, “You are not perfect, John, but you are perfect FOR ME.”

I love my wife for feeling that way about me. She is my gift from God. Amen!

{And that, my friends, is how BOTH of us have changed. We have tried to stop focusing on each others’ short-comings and asked the Lord to just mold us to be what we are supposed to be… when we are both doing that, the marriage relationship thrives in ways we simple did not understand before!In no way have we “arrived,” but we truly do have a wonderful relationship, can talk about anything, and enjoy each others’ company more than any one else’s.}

{If you missed the first part yesterday, please read it first!}

We turned several corners during our first years of being married, but there was sometimes a bit of animosity between us. Our problem, unbeknownst to either of us, was that we had yet to become ONE.

We each were doing our best in the marriage, but it was still each of us trying to be what we thought we ought to be.

Several years ago, all of this changed. To me there was no defining moment, but God really began to work on MY heart.

Much of this previous time I would dwell on the other half of the equation, when the real problem was staring at me in the mirror.

God spoke to me saying, “John, quit looking at your wife and all of her flaws, cuz you my son, are NOT all of that either.”

The problem was, I was dwelling on my wife and what SHE needed to change and not on me, myself, and I. WOW!!

It was NOT my wife that was the problem, but my own pride that was the problem.

Thus began the journey of just allowing God to change MY life so I could become what He wanted me to be.

After all, God knows exactly what my wife needs in and from me, and if I allow God to change me, then I am becoming not only what God wants and needs me to be, but what my wife wants and needs me to be as well.

As my wife often says to me, “You are not perfect, John, but you are perfect FOR ME.”

I love my wife for feeling that way about me. She is my gift from God. Amen!

{And that, my friends, is how BOTH of us have changed. We have tried to stop focusing on each others’ short-comings and asked the Lord to just mold us to be what we are supposed to be… when we are both doing that, the marriage relationship thrives in ways we simple did not understand before!In no way have we “arrived,” but we truly do have a wonderful relationship, can talk about anything, and enjoy each others’ company more than any one else’s.}