PROBLEM* When choosing a spouse … you’re also accepting several unsolvable problems * You don’t need a big marriage book to save your marriage; you need a big God

GOD **Colossians 3:23–24**Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving

**Proverbs 3:6 TLB**In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success APPLICATION* Pray first (keep this on the screen until I get to the dream detective part)- losing car key illustration + We think we can just keep looking and eventually we’ll find what we’re missing + Apart from God’s daily intervention, we can do nothing to help our marriage + What are we doing to prevent God from working? + Lesson learned: go to God first rather than last * Move from “your spouse and you”, to “your spouse, you, and God” + Approach your spouse softly about a problem + Develop strategies to avoid confrontations (housework)

VISION* Become a dream detective + Our deepest dreams are frequently rooted in childhood - Are you treating your spouse the way you learned from Jesus? * Father, I surrender all of me to you right now. I put you first from now on and choose to find my life, my happiness, in Jesus alone. Fill me with your Son, Jesus, in such a powerful way that I became the man/woman you created me to be. In the power of the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.