7:25 am. Saturday.
It was a cold morning outside and the house felt warm and cozy, everyone was sleeping soundly. I woke up before anyone else to an extremely heavy heart, with tons things on my mind as soon as my eyes opened. I was extremely unsettled about some personal relationships, had some doubts, some fears, was reminded of my shortcomings…you name it, I was feeling it and it all was SO heavy on my heart. I felt so many unpleasant emotions, all at once, to the point of tears beginning to stream down my face as I continued to lie with my back towards Eddie and his to mine (somehow, no matter what way we end up falling asleep at night, we more often than not end up like this by morning! Wild sleepers, I guess). I thought to myself “don’t wake him up he’s so comfy – be really quiet.” To my surprise, from a deep sleep, I hear him say softly:
“Babe, whats wrong?'” as he turned over and grabbed my hand.
I had a complete deer in the headlights moment. How does he know that I am awake? How does he know that I am crying? How does he even know something’s wrong…after all, he was sleeping?
Because it was. God had placed heavily on my husband’s heart that something was wrong with me, his wife. This feeling was so intense that it awoke him from the deepest sleep and alerted him that something was majorly wrong. It was as if he, too, was feeling exactly what I felt. We both sat up there in the bed and began to pray together and really cry out to the Lord, until the burdens were lifted and I felt the release of the heaviness. When I later asked Eddie how he knew something was wrong, his response was “I just knew, I felt it.”
This is actually an occurrence all too familiar in our marriage. Many times in the past, Eddie gets not-so-gentle nudges from the Holy Spirit that he should check-in with me to make sure things are okay, and vise versa. Somehow each time it happens, I am stand amazed as if it were the first time it has ever happened. The Lord never ceases to amaze me! We constantly strive to be equally yoked in our relationship.
In terms of a marriage, being equally yoked would simply mean having a common goal with your spouse, sharing values and opinions, and overall just being “in tune” with each other. This allows you two to walk seamlessly together. When we talk about being equally yoked, this personal story from my life is one example of being just that. You see, when a marriage is centered in Christ, naturally you both begin to have the same heart’s desires and overall vision for your family and God promises to come in the relationship and take residence there. God gives us the command of being equally yoked concerning all of our relationships for our own protection and joy. Because of this, from the very beginning of our marriage we have made it a point in our relationship to love the Lord first, and then love each other, all for God’s glory!
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20 NIV)
One way that we stay equally yoked, connected through Christ, and both running after the same thing is through us making daily confessions that we prayerfully generated and made into list form. We wrote them all down for reference and each confession is tailored to fit our family. We wrote down overall goals, needs, and desires of the heart for each of us individually and for all of us as a family unit. Once we had a thorough list of what we were going to confess aloud daily, we began to carve out time each day to turn devices off, come together on one accord, pray, and speak confessions over our family. Friends, this has been life changing! I encourage every married couple and family to implement this practice if you haven’t already to ensure that you are equally yoked with your spouse.
Additional Verses for further Study:
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:7 NLT)
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” (Psalm 55:22 NIV)
Wishing you all a great week,
