The Power of Declaring Life Over Your Marriage
The Power of Declaring Life
Over Your Marriage
By Clayton & Ashlee Hurst
We’ ve heard it said before that soul mates aren’ t born, but created through the trenches of life. Like most couples, as we approached our wedding day, we thought we were soul mates and completely prepared for marriage. Our parents modeled great marriages to us and we assumed that we would have the same. During the first few years of marriage we began to realize we weren’ t soul mates, and also feared we had made a terrible mistake in marrying each other. As the arguments became more frequent and the unkind words cut deeper, we slowly started our descent into a deep valley of hopelessness. We didn’ t purposely head that direction, but before long we were in over our heads and didn’ t think
16 • Solutions there was a way out.
At the time we were young adults and young pastors and didn’ t feel like there was anyone we could talk to and felt ashamed to even ask. So we continued to pretend that we were perfectly fine.
We came to the tipping point in year five of our marriage and realized that if we didn’ t make some changes we were destined for marital failure. It all began with a simple question,“ Are you willing to do whatever it takes to have the marriage you’ ve always hoped and dreamed of?” It was a simple question that was intended for another couple we were trying to help with their marriage. Oh the irony.