Garth Heckman
The David Alliance
Rush is going to go on tour again, with a keyboard player and with a new drummer Anika Nilles… only 7 cities named so far in the US…
But with that I once heard someone say the only thing harder to keep together than a marriage is a band…
You don’t get married for a Good Time, you get married for a long time.
You don’t get married to have kids, you get married to learn how not to be a kid, act like a kid, pout like a kid, complain like a kid,
You don’t raise kids, they raise you.
If there is one major flaw in todays world of love and marriage - and trust me you could name a few dozen… but after 41 years of counseling I would simply say the number one major flaw in marriages is that they did not understand the amount of hard work it would take to have a loving successful marriage. It does not come naturally, it does not just happen when you find the right person, it is hard no matter who you marry and every great relationship put in great amounts of painstaking hard work.
Painful communication, lots of compromise, more then you might ever guess as far as having to forgive again and again and again.
So again talking about how we model for our spouse what God models for us to make our relationships work.
## 4. **Forgiveness **
* *Christ:* 1 John 1:9 — He is faithful to forgive.
* *Marriage:* Colossians 3:13 — forgive as the Lord forgave you.
**Teaching Point:** Forgiveness is the oxygen of both relationships.
**Activity:** Share a time when forgiveness restored peace in your marriage.
#5 Grace
Grace is the oil to any good relationship. Grace says you made a mistake, but I knew you would when I married you and I still choose to love you and not hold it against you.
Christ died for our sins knowing we would still mess up and hurt him. But his loving kindness leads us to repentance.
Our love for our spouse when they least deserve it leads them to back into a loving relationship with us.
Have you ever hated your spouse back into your arms? Have you ever be grudged your spouse back into your arms? Have you ever punished your spouse back into your arms? HOW DID THAT WORK FOR YOU?
Gods ways are best not only between he and a sinful world, but also between me and a sinful spouse… oh and also for me a sinner as well.
