Married Life: Merging Your Spiritual Lives
Marrying a Christian does not guarantee that the two of you will automatically connect spiritually in your married life. If the two of you are not in the same place spiritually or have different ways of nurturing your spirituality, it can be difficult to build spiritual intimacy. However, difficult is not impossible.
Let go of Idealistic Expectations
Before you got married, you probably imagined what it would be like to share your spiritual life with your partner. You might have imagined the two of you reading the bible and praying together every night or attending spiritual retreats as a couple. Also, you probably thought that the two of you would always be in more or less the same place spiritually.
The thing is that you have to let go of these preconceived expectations in order to grow spiritually as a couple. You should not try to change your partner so that he/she can be more like you or stop pursuing your own spiritual growth for fear that your wife or husband will fall behind. Remember your spiritual growth benefits you both.
Make Spiritual Plans Together
Do your marriage goals include your spiritual goals as a couple?
You see, the quickest way to blend your spiritual lives as a couple is to make spiritual plans together. Your plans should cover your prayer, bible study and tithing goals as a couple among other aspects of married life.
Praying and studying the bible together as a couple, draws you into a unity with each other and with God. It deepens your relationship with God as well as your spiritual intimacy as a couple. However, since it is not always possible to pray together every day, you should, at the very least, pray for each other.
This may appear to be marriage advice for newlyweds, but merging spiritual lives is not a newlywed thing. In fact, many married couples don’t begin pursuing spiritual intimacy seriously until they are a few years into married life. So, don’t let how long you’ve been married stop you from pursuing a deeper spiritual connection with your wife or husband.