“God designed marriage to be a covenant modeled from the one that He made with us,” explains co-host Linda Hutchinson. Nowadays, 50% of all marriages end in divorce. This is a startling statistic. The good news is that when you consider only the marriages of couples who pray together, less than 1% of those marriages end in divorce. In the first 4 parts of their Summer of Love Series, co-hosts Merrill and Linda Hutchinson introduced their Summer of Love Marriage Assessment for evaluating the quality of a marriage and walked through 3 of the four categories— communication, emotional connectedness and physical intimacy. Today, they discuss spiritual intimacy and share ten ways to build and strengthen spiritual intimacy within a marriage. 

Technically, you cannot have a marriage in the way that God intended without spiritual intimacy. There are immense benefits to deepening your relationship with your partner through a shared connection with God. One such benefit is that God acts as a third party in your relationship, providing mediation during times of conflict. By reflecting on your covenant with God and looking to his Word for guidance, it will be easier for you and your spouse to be on the same page when making decisions. God’s love is unconditional. So when you mirror your marriage with God’s covenant with humanity, it will be easier to love your spouse unconditionally and extend them grace when they make mistakes. When you strengthen your spiritual intimacy with your spouse, it solidifies why God is important to your family and weaves faith into the fabric of the futures you are creating for yourselves and your children. 

If you are not sure where to begin with developing your spiritual intimacy, start with having an open, honest conversation with your spouse about God. Find a church where you both feel comfortable and turn to the scriptures anytime you are questioning what decisions to make for your family. Start creating faith based traditions for your children and really showing them the importance of prioritizing a relationship with God. When you commit to growing your spiritual intimacy, you and your spouse will be able to experience the joy and connection with one another that God intended for all His children.

Quotes

• “If the spiritual side is not in your marriage, then you're not as deep as you can go yet.” (9:33 | Merrill)
• “Oftentimes marriages as soon as it gets difficult, they throw the divorce word. But what would happen if you both humbled yourself and said, ‘What does God ask us to do here?’.” (11:51 | Merrill)
• “God designed marriage to be a covenant modeled from the one that He made with us.” (12:29 | Linda)
• “Belief or even faith is empty without deeds.” (18:43 | Merrill) 
• “If we pray together on a daily basis… those marriages divorce at less than 1%.” (20:58 | Merrill)
• “Love your spouse the way God loves you.” (39:27 | Linda) 

Links

Summer of Love Assessment: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MqDxgddfmr7rzbQRFV1jC0VaUdok3XnG/view?usp=sharing

Instagram Rock Solid Families | https://www.instagram.com/rocksolidfamilies/?hl=en 

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