Lord God, thank you so much for the gift of marriage.

Lord God, thank you so much for the gift of marriage. But Jesus, I'm so grateful that you pointed out that not only is marriage a great gift, but the two people in that marriage are both sinners, which means we're broken, we've got some bad habits. Lord God, we can hurt each other really deeply. Forgive us. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and help us to be patient with each other. To be long suffering. Help us to take rejection, a mean word, and not erupt over it and blow it out of proportion. Help us, Lord God, to say honestly that that hurt. And then to wait for a response. Lord God, give us the strength not to get blown out of the water by the bad habits, the mental illness, the wrongdoing of our spouse. Help us to forgive. Help us to rejoice and celebrate the other person. Help us to put the interest of the other person before our own. Help us, Lord. Help us to really serve. Thank you that serving others is love with work boots on. Help us to work at it. Help us to treasure our spouses, to celebrate our spouses, indeed to love our spouses. Lord, we know that the one who overlooks an offense is greater than the one who captures a city. In marriage, Lord, we know when things go bad, there is so much offense, there's so much defensiveness, and it's so easy to get caught up in criticism and make mountains out of molehills. Instead, help us to be secure enough that when a spouse critiques us, we can overlook it and be secure in your love and then respond, Lord, with hey, that hurt. Hey, can we change our communication style? Hey, can we change how we relate to one another? Thank you, Jesus, that you are the one who created communication through your word. Help us to use our words in marriage wisely, as we know that grows a healthy one. Jesus name. Amen.