Sometimes it's the indirect or informal things that have the most lasting effect. How many times have you been impacted by someone simply by watching how they lived and responded to life?
This is true in all of life but it can be particularly significant in marriage. We as Christian couples need all the help and encouragement we can get. Often that can come simply by being around others who are endeavoring to take Jesus more seriously in their lives.
We tend to become like the people we hang out with. We need the peer pressure of those among us who are sincerely and humbly trying to work out the gospel in their marriages. I find it refreshing and convicting to be in the presence of another couple who are honestly struggling to honor Christ in their lives and home. I go away with a renewed desire to love my wife more and be what God has called me to be in her life. That doesn't always come through formal instruction but healthy peer pressure!
My in laws, Tom and Ada Brown were married 56 years and are now home with the Lord. They will never fully know just how much they influenced me as to what it means to be a husband and father. They were a perpetual object lesson to me. I praise God that I was "pressured" by a couple who simply and faithfully loved their God and each other to the end.
1 comment:
you and mom continue to have an eternal influence on me. thank you for your pressure :)
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