God designed marriage as a way to chisel away at the self-centered nature of our hearts. His desire is for us to love others as ourselves. He wants us to put the needs of our spouses before our own instead of demanding our needs are met.

Rather than running, if we only learned to stop and open our eyes in the moments when the trials seem to be the greatest, we would find the supernatural power to transform our hearts. We grow a little more like Jesus in those moments, and we find His peace and His joy.

We are told we can find joy even in the most difficult struggles, and we can. We have to stop focusing on the solutions to the problems and start focusing on Him, trusting completely that He has it under control.

Having the 'Christian club card' was never meant to be a pass from the struggle—we don’t get to just pray away the hardship. God’s not our genie in a bottle, and when we approach Him that way, we’re going to be sadly disappointed.

The single greatest apologetic is relationships and community. Your marriage is either confirming or denying the existence of God to the watching people in your life.

Love for others really begins, continues, and is daily motivated by our love for God. Marriage is how God puts this on display for you; it’s how He holds up a mirror to your love for Him.

When Jesus calls us to love others as we love ourselves, that’s a pretty challenging command. He’s asking us to love our spouse as much as we love ourselves, to think about them as much we think about ourselves.

Loving God with all of our minds means we are making new discoveries about Him all the time. We should be investing energy every single day of our lives learning more and more about our Father in Heaven, and filling our minds with His truths.

Your marriage is a gauge for your love of God. It is the very evidence of your devotion to the Lord. Your spouse should experience the love of God through your every interaction.

In order for us to love God with all of our heart, we need to treasure Him above all else. We need to value our relationship with God over all our earthly possessions, over all our accomplishments and our accolades, over all our relationships.