{"id":657,"date":"2014-08-25T09:24:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T13:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=657"},"modified":"2014-08-27T08:45:41","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:45:41","slug":"sacred-marriage-seminar-a-morning-with-god-my-husband-gary-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=657","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Marriage Seminar – A Morning with God, My Husband, & Gary Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been married 30 years to the same man. Well, not really. He and I have both changed\u00a0considerably – not in our core values so much or our deepest heart desires, but in pretty much every other way.\u00a0We grew up a lot, married to each other. I am especially thankful he hung in there with me during some of those tough early growing up years.<\/p>\n

This past weekend, we had the joy of together attending a Sacred Marriage Seminar with Gary Thomas (sponsored by First Things First of Greater Richmond). Can’t remember the last marriage conference we participated in. One friend said, this weekend, on hearing we’d attended, “I won’t go to marriage conferences any more. until I start applying what I’ve learned at previous ones.” [Of course, we know their marriage pretty well…loving, honest, devoted to God and others…including each other.]<\/p>\n

\"2014<\/a><\/p>\n

Gary L. Thomas has made a deep study of marriage over many decades and his wisdom\u00a0has been a great\u00a0encouragement to us. Our absolute favorite book on marriage is his\u00a0Sacred Marriage – What if God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than Happy?\u00a0<\/em> Thomas is\u00a0not precluding happiness as part of marriage. By no means. What he does is to encourage the reader to fix\u00a0our focus on our walk with God as the true foundation for the great joys possible in marriage.<\/p>\n

If you are single (or single-again) and hope God has marriage in your future, I would encourage you to read Thomas’ book The Sacred Search. <\/em>Those single years for me could have been far less dramatic and traumatic\u00a0 if I’d known then what I know now. This book is a good start in gaining wisdom for that season.<\/p>\n

If you are married, happily for now or unhappily for a long time,\u00a0you might consider reading\u00a0Sacred Marriage. <\/em>As in\u00a0the too-frequent\u00a0Sunday-to-Monday sacred-secular divide, there can be the same spiritual disconnect in our marriages.\u00a0Persevere. Don’t give up. Not on each other, and especially not on God. I don’t say this lightly…dark days come to all marriages. I know. What I also know is that God loves His children, and our weakness can\u00a0actually\u00a0display\u00a0His great strength (2 Corinthians 12:9).<\/p>\n

[Hear my heart, if you are divorced or in a second\/third marriage, there is no judgment here. Only hope for you, singly or together with your spouse, to know and love God and the glory of His love for you.]<\/p>\n

I leave you with some of\u00a0what Gary Thomas says\u00a0through these books and the Sacred Marriage Seminar. Hopefully, you’ve heard from me that it’s not about Gary Thomas…but about a God who desires true intimacy for us – with Himself and with each other.<\/p>\n

The spiritual challenge of marriage is that “We ALL<\/strong> stumble in many ways.” (James 3:2) — Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Marriage Seminar<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to be free to serve Jesus, there\u2019s no question\u2014stay single. Marriage takes a lot of time. But<\/strong> if you want to become more like Jesus, I can\u2019t imagine any better thing to do than to get married. Being married forces you to face some character issues you\u2019d never have to face otherwise.\u201d — Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Marriage<\/em><\/p>\n

“Women, ask yourself, what will you most desire in your man ten years from now, when you have kids and a house and are sharing a life together and the infatuation has faded? Find that. Look for that.\u201d — Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Search<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“None of us is so fascinating that we can keep someone enchanted for 50-60 years. But if we’re joined in seeking God’s Kingdom [Matthew 6:33], then there’s plenty of drama for a lifetime. Selfishness is boring. Being centered on His purposes is riveting and bonding.” — Gary L. Thomas, notes from Sacred Marriage Seminar<\/em><\/p>\n

“If I get married for trivial reasons, then I’ll get divorced for trivial reasons. If I get married to “seek first the Kingdom of God” then that never changes and my marriage is on rock-solid ground.” — Gary L. Thomas, notes from Sacred Marriage Seminar<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCouples don’t fall out of love so much as they fall out of repentance.\u201d – Gary L. Thomas<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn’t be surprised if many marriages end in divorce largely because one or both partners are running from their own revealed weaknesses as much as they are running from something they can’t tolerate in their spouse.\u201d — Gary L. Thomas<\/p>\n

“Your spouse is a child of God, too, so meditate on God as Father-in-Law. He knows His children better than anyone knows them. We need to pay attention to\u00a0God in how He cares for His children – like a daddy watching out for his little girl\u00a0– and love\u00a0our spouse\u00a0as He loves them.” — Gary L. Thomas, notes from Sacred Marriage Seminar<\/em><\/p>\n

First Things First of Greater Richmond<\/a><\/p>\n

Gary Thomas Website, Blog, Resources<\/a><\/p>\n

Singles and “The Sacred Search<\/em>“<\/a><\/p>\n

Excerpts from Gary Thomas’ The<\/em> Sacred Search<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacred Search<\/em> by Gary Thomas {A Book Review}<\/a><\/p>\n

10 Essentials for Your Marriage<\/a><\/p>\n

Sacred Marriage<\/em> Small Group Bible Study Videos<\/a><\/p>\n

Gary L. Thomas Quotes from Goodreads.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Another word on marriage – with engaging comment section including comments by Gary Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been married 30 years to the same man. Well, not really. He and I have both changed\u00a0considerably – not in our core values so much or our deepest heart desires, but in pretty much every other way.\u00a0We grew up a lot, married to each other. I am especially thankful he hung in there with … Continue reading Sacred Marriage Seminar – A Morning with God, My Husband, & Gary Thomas<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,33,317,293,263,337,55,32],"tags":[152,495,494,493,276,496,211,499,492,491,497,498],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-inspired","category-lessons-learned","category-life-skills","category-lives-full-of-god","category-marriage-2","category-transitions","category-walk-with-god","tag-divorced","tag-father-in-law","tag-gary-l-thomas","tag-happy","tag-holy","tag-kingdom-of-god","tag-love","tag-persevere","tag-sacred-marriage","tag-sacred-search","tag-single","tag-single-again"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-aB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}