lies women believe

i've been in a study with some women from my old church for the last five weeks & it's pretty stinkin amazing. we're reading the book "lies women believe: and the truth that sets them free" by nancy leigh demoss. this week's chapter focused on lies that women believe about marriage. i've been married for almost 2.5 years & even though this chapter was a reminder of how far i still have to go, i am so thankful for this teaching so early on in my marriage.

the last section of the chapter had this list that stood out to me & convicted me on so many levels:

• there is no marriage God cannot heal. there is no person God cannot change.
• the primary purpose of marriage is not to be happy, but to glorify God and reflect His redeeming, covenant love.
• God uses the rough edges of each partner in a marriage to conform the other to the image of Christ. your mate's weaknesses can become a tool in God's hand to make you into the woman He created you to be.
• true love--God's love--is unconditional and never fails. we cannot love another human being perfectly on our own. but God can love anyone through us, if we are willing to let Him. love is not a feeling; it is a commitment to act in the best interests of another. by God's grace, we can choose to love anyone, even if we do not have warm feelings toward that person.
• marriage is a covenant. God is a covenant-keeping God. he kept His promises to the nation of Israel, even when they were spiritually adulterous and pursued other lovers. the Lord Jesus keeps His promises to His bride--the church--even when we are unfaithful to Him. because He is faithful to keep His promises, it is never right for us to break the marriage covenant that was intended to be a picture of the redemptive relationship between God and His people.
• God has commanded us to forgive without limit.
• your faithfulness and willingness to extend sacrificial love to your mate may be the means of his spiritual healing, even as Christ's suffering was the means by which we were healed.
• God's grace is sufficient to enable you to be faithful to your mate and to love and forgive without limit.
• God will never forsake you. regardless of what you must endure, He will be there to carry you through.
• the rewards of faithfulness in this life may not be fully experienced until eternity. but faithfulness will be rewarded and it will be worth the wait.

i just want to encourage married women (& future married women) to look to Christ in your marriage, know that true happiness is not found in (or out of) your marriage, know that a godly life & prayer are a wife's two greatest means of influencing your husband's life, serve your husband & be his helper, know that submission places you under the covering and protection of God and when you step out from under that authority it makes you vulnerable to attacks from the enemy, & God created man to be an initiator and the woman to be the responder.