FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Everyone,

This is the promised “Part 2″ to the blog entry I shared yesterday about the Barna Group’s new stats on Marriage, Divorce, and Cohabitation. Marriages are perhaps one of the biggest targets these days. I believe that Satan himself knows that if he can destroy marriages, families, he will wreak havoc on us. I see this so often.

Joy and I will have been married for 10 years this August. My oldest brother (congrats Billy and Celese) just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. My neighbors across the street (congrats Darrel and Lynne) are about to celebrate 25 years as well. My parents will be celebrating 47 years of marriage this year, and Joy’s parents will celebrate 50 years. What a wonderful, rich heritage we have to celebrate.

I’m not ashamed to tell you this … Joy and I over the last couple of months started “marriage counseling”. Yep, you heard me right. We’re not the ones doing the counseling … we are GOING to counseling. Is our marriage on the rocks? Heck no. Are we at the end of our rope? Heck no! We’re MADLY in love with each other. Like any other marriage, we have our ups and downs … our arguments, our barriers that seem we just can’t agree to climb. So, we decided that for the good of our health, of our family, and of our marriage, it would be wise to lay down our pride and meet with our counselor at church.

I call it “PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE”.

At first Barby (our staff counselor at SSCC) asked if we needed to come in the evenings, etc., … outside of “church hours”. I said, “no way, I don’t mind strutting through the main staff hallway and telling everyone in there that we’re going to marriage counseling”. I hope that if nothing else, it will INSPIRE others to do the same.

One of the pastors that I love to follow on the ‘net is Pastor Steven Furtick from the phenomenal “Elevation Church” in Charlotte, NC. Steven proudly boasts and confesses from the pulpit, for all to hear .. that he meets regularly with a counselor. Not because he’s crazy, not because he’s in sin and addiction, not because his marriage is on the rocks … because he feels it is HEALTHY to meet with someone and sort through your feelings in a SAFE ENVIRONMENT. It’s healthy to get FRESH PERSPECTIVE and “NEW EYES AND EARS” on the subjects that we all wrestle with.

That being said, I hope to encourage all of you blog readers … don’t keep your issues bottled up on the inside. Talk to someone. Counsel with someone. Make it a matter of preventative maintenance. We get dirty in this world – our views and selfish ambitions (yes, we ALL have them) cause us to have twisted views of reality and truth … so why not schedule an appointment and meet with someone you can trust today.

How ’bout it ya’ll? Would you, or will you consider it?

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Related posts:

1. 11 Years of Marriage Today …
2. Marriage Tag (thanks Mandy)
3. Sacred Marriage