Moments with You Couples Devotional 2/8

We are . . . created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
EPHESIANS 2:10

At the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, they give you a map to find your room—and believe me, you need it! The place is so big that the glass ceiling in the atrium is the size of six football fields.

The hotel's exotic plant collection, which takes 20 full-time gardeners to maintain, includes an Asian banana tree . . . right in the heart of Tennessee! This unusual tree grows only one crop of bananas its entire life. Then the team of gardeners cuts it down and plants another.
How interesting that God in His wisdom would create a tree designed to serve just one short-term purpose. Unlike trees that bear fruit annually, the Asian banana tree has a unique calling. Your family also has a unique calling. You have been set apart by God to fulfill your own purpose. There are certain values and priorities that define who you are—certain goals you've been created to achieve. These guide the way you spend your time, money and energy.

Can you articulate God's purpose for your marriage and family? One of His purposes for Barbara and me has been to equip marriages and families with God's blueprints. In addition, Barbara and I have found that some of His purposes change as we move through the different seasons of a family. When we had children at home, it was clear that one of our purposes was to train them to know God and equip them to obey Him in life.

God does have a unique purpose for each of you as individuals and for the two of you as a couple. I encourage you to talk and pray about these purposes together.

DISCUSS
Looking back over the direction of your lives, taking note of your convictions and those things that you are passionate about, what do you think are a couple of God's purposes for you as a couple?

PRAY
Pray for wisdom, unity of spirit and the tenacity to stay true to your calling, no matter what other families act like or expect.