Christian Marriage Mastery

ANDRIS: Hi, welcome to Christian Marriage Mastery. I’m Andris.

GINTA: And I’m Ginta. This is for couples who are lonely, unhappy, emotionally disconnected, or wondering what happened to their marriage.

ANDRIS: We got married in March 1989. Neither of us was a Christian back then. We came to God together in 1995.

GINTA: So today we want to tell you who we are, why we’re doing this, and why now. Let me start.

Our story

GINTA: I am not American, so the prosperity gospel did not hit me as hard as it did for those growing up in that culture. In my twenties and thirties, I was in a full-time ministry with an American international missions organization in Europe, a former Soviet Union country, and I was taught all those BS things, and of course, I believed, because why not? If one professes that they hear from God, as those guest teachers from USA always did, then I had a reason to understand that someday they will stand in front of God and will be judged about what they say, and they know it very well. Therefore, I have to trust what they say, because, who am I? I was just a disciple learning about God.

So I allowed them to destroy even my marriage with that BS teaching about submission and headship, spanking my child, doing roles as wife and husband, satisfying the needs of my husband, his needs, her needs, and so on. We already were a couple in recovery before we joined that Christian movement, and in addition to that, we got a teaching that destroyed even more of our hope to restore our relationship.

But through the same organization, we also met some very wise people like Bob Lanning, who challenged our beliefs about Christianity. We went through a full, intensive Church Planting and Leadership course, challenging every corner of the Christian religion, and I graduated that school with more questions than answers, with a book in my hand given by Bob to me, The Naked Church. So since 2002, I embarked on a journey to search for truth.

I also went through different phases like other people in the deconstruction movement. I did not know it was called “deconstruction,” though. From all the emotions of hurt, pain, feeling used and abused, to total denial of God, to looking for answers elsewhere, to slowly recognizing that God might exist but in a different way than I was taught to believe, to coming back to God, but at the same time being very, very cautious about faith. Until I finally made the decision that everybody needs some value system, and for me, Christianity is closer to what I believe than anything else.

So now, I am kinda back, but at the same time, I am different. I do not belong to any movement or religion, not even to those who deconstruct. I have found that they deconstruct in a very bitter mode, still fighting and attacking. But that is not living in peace. It is still living with their traumas on a battlefield. They might have left the battlefield, but the battlefield is still in them. But I went through all that journey and came out at the end.

The same happened with my husband.

ANDRIS: Yeah, it was a really hard time for both of us.

GINTA: It is super difficult to live without faith. I lost my faith completely, and it brought me down, down, down.

And now we are teaching. That is a miracle in itself. We went from being ashamed that we were Christians, and we were really devoted ones, to total disaster and denial, and then coming out again. I do not know how to name that belief, because certainly, it does not belong to any church.

Why now

ANDRIS: We see so many couples living where we lived. Hurting, disconnected, and a lot of them crushed by the same kind of teaching we got.

GINTA: And it’s time to rebuild your relationship on Truth. And that is on your identity in Christ, your born-to-be identity. That’s what changed things for us, and that’s what we want to give you.

What to expect

ANDRIS: So here’s what’s coming. Every week we’ll put out a new episode.

GINTA: We’ll talk about our own story, really honestly. What we see in the couples we work with. And we’re writing a book, Your Marriage Restored, so we’ll share pieces of that too.

ANDRIS: I’ll talk to the husbands, Ginta talks to the wives, and sometimes we’ll talk together, like today.

GINTA: So if this is you, if you’re sitting there thinking, “what happened to us?”, subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.

ANDRIS: And if you know a couple who needs this, send it to them. Sometimes that’s the first door that opens.

GINTA: And if you want to go deeper with us, come join our free Christian Marriage Mastery community on Skool. The link is in the show notes.

ANDRIS: Thanks for listening.

GINTA: See you next time.

Here is our Skool community Christian Marriage Mastery https://www.skool.com/real-raw-marriage-4394

Here is our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@ChristianMarriageMastery

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