What We Learned From Separation | Happy & Healthy

Happy Monday! Another weekend has come and gone, and the workweek has begun. How are you feeling today? Was your weekend relaxing and restful, or exhausting and stressful? Do you feel rejuvenated and ready to face whatever this week brings you? Or do you feel defeated and unsure if you can make it through another day without breaking? If you’re the latter… we get it. We absolutely get it. There was a time when it was sickening to think about having to get up in the morning and live through another day. We were completely broken.

A few days after we separated two years ago we started individual counseling with our pastor. The first thing he asked us was “are you willing to do whatever it takes to save your marriage?” Read about it here.  To be completely honest, Reid answered “yes” wholeheartedly, but Brittany didn’t. She wanted to save our marriage, but didn’t know if she would be up for “whatever it took.” It was only God’s grace and faithfulness that carried her to that place. That’s not at all to say that Reid’s part was easy. Reid’s part took an insane amount of sacrifice, selflessness, dedication and total trust in God’s plan.

Once that foundation was established, we moved on to the first lesson/challenge. Our pastor explained to us how we cannot have a happy and healthy marriage without two happy and healthy individuals. He asked us how our relationships with the Lord were, our relationships with our friends and family, how we felt at our jobs, our hobbies, etc. It wasn’t until we broke it down that we realized just how unhappy and unhealthy our lives were individually. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to how to become a happy and healthy person. The first step, without a doubt, is to turn to Jesus. We were not created to be self-sufficient. We’re human, we’re imperfect, and we need God. He loves us more than we can imagine, and wants desperately for us to fall into His loving arms and let Him carry us. All we have to do is ask. When we let God carry our burdens, when we truly try to trust Him to take care of us, He provides a peace that is unimaginable. It can’t stop there, though. We can’t just say “here, take this from me” and never give Him another thought. Relationships with friends, family and spouses can’t exist without communication. You don’t call them once a week when you need help with something, then forget about them. It’s the same with our God. We need continual communication with Him to experience His best. That’s through reading and memorizing His word, spending time in prayer, and worship.

We were given the challenge to start each day with time alone with God, to memorize one scripture verse a week, and to start reading the book His Needs, Her Needs. The next several weeks were focused on other areas of our lives, but without building our foundation with God, the things to follow would be worthless.

Wherever you are in your faith today, we hope that this was encouraging. Sometimes we catch ourselves wondering why we don’t feel happy, without noticing our walk with God slipping away. It’s good for us to have this reminder that we weren’t meant to handle life on our own, and all we have to do is ask.

Have a fabulous Monday!