A Change of Heart, or Putting off the Natural Man.

This week we began to read from “Drawing Heaven into Your Marriage”, by Dr. H. Wallace Goddard. His premise is that our relationships can be changed by eternal doctrines. By using gospel principles, we can put off the natural selfish person within us, and begin to have a change of heart to truly love every person in our lives.

As we are commanded to marry; so of course the person we want to love the most would be our spouse. A scripture he give us speaks of our natural state:

“For the natural [spouse] is an enemy to God [and his or her partner], and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to enticing of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord” (Mosiah 3:19)

He tells us that all our problems are untimely spiritual and can be solved by the great healer, Jesus. Through Dr. Goddard’s writings we can learn how to turn from our self-serving/centered ways to improve our marriage to be eternal worthy.

Whaaaats Up?

The best questions he wants us to ask is not why we are being treated badly or misunderstood, but what is going on for the other person:

• ·         “I wonder if I can understand why this is important to my partner.
• ·         What is my partner really telling me?
• ·         I wonder if I can understand their pain?
• ·         Can I get God to help me get beyond myself in order to understand my spouse?
• ·     How would the Good Samaritan minister to my partner?”

This Book Is Awesome!!!

We are also reading The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, by Dr. John M. Gottman, Even after forty-eight years of a fun marriage, I have hopes for learning and being able to implement expertise into my marriage. I am so surprised that I haven’t seen this man up to this point. Who knew, right? Watch him on YouTube, he has some good points. It's never too late to make your marriage better!

Friends Forever

Gottman says it is very important to be friends. When a couple are good friends, they can really make a marriage great! My husband is my best friend: Laughing together, inside jokes, and memories of vacations are things that we do to build that friendship. Are you friends with your spouse???  If not, get to know them. The book has exercises to find out who you really married. Fun!!