2-23-14 Before and After I do (4) – Never Give Up

Today we are finishing up our series Before and After I do and we have been talking about dating and marriage.  Hopefully you have learned something or have been reminded of something and had fun in the process.  Wasn’t last week fun?  Did you have some face to face, side by side and belly button to belly button fun last week (for those that are married of course)?  Honestly for me it was pretty nerve wrecking delivering that message, but I just felt I needed to do it.  I wanted to inject some truth about intimacy that most people otherwise have gotten from wrong sources.  I got so many positive feedbacks that I just want to say thank you for your encouragement.  Your positive feedbacks will enable me to continue to take risks for speaking God’s truth.

Even though today is an end to our series by no means this is all there is to dating to marriage.  Like I said from the very beginning, my hope is that you will have a great marriage.  I hope this series will be a start of many conversations and many learning experiences to come for all of us.  There is so much to learn about relationships that it will take a lifetime for us to do it.  There will be fun times and there will be difficult times, but when we say, “I do,” we need to mean it for the lifetime.  So as we close, we are going to talk about never give up, and why we should never give up in a marriage.

Moving Forward

Marriage is a covenant and not a contract.  It is a permanent relationship with no end date.  No matter how tough things might become, divorce should not be an option.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you tend to be more selfish or selfless with your spouse?  Explain.

2. Describe a time when you encountered a tough time in your marriage.  How did you get through it and how did that experience affect your marriage?

3. Read Galatians 6:7-9.  What and where are you sowing in your marriage currently?  Are you pleased with your harvest or do you need to make some changes?

4. What are some specific things you’ve learned from this series that you are going to do to ensure that you and your spouse never give up in your marriage?