I feel that the key in my marriage is walking with Jesus. When I’m walking with Jesus as I should be, I’m in his Word, I’m spending time with him, and he and I are close. My marriage is totally different than when I am sort of coasting along spiritually. I believe what God has designed me for is to walk with him and he completes me. He fills me with himself. That way when Melanie and I come together, I’m not needing her so much and my desire is to pour into her.

I think what happens in marriages is we’re not walking with God so we’re pulling out of each other. We have a hole in ourselves and suddenly we need things from our spouse that they weren’t designed to give us. I know the difference between when I’m walking with Jesus or not.

When I’m walking with God and I’m in fellowship with him I’m where I should be. I just want to love her; I want to pour into her; I want to serve her. When I’m not walking with Jesus, I’m sort of coasting along, haven’t been in the Word for a month and suddenly I need her to appreciate me, I need her to help me and serve me, and recognize how awesome I am and all this kind of stuff. I’m telling you there’s a lot of things you can do, but when you walk with God the marriage starts working.