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revelation that, at the time, Dave didn’t realize how miraculous it was.
    By the time he went into the army, Dave had spent years walking intimately with God, but he was already taking God’s supernatural voice for granted because it had been such a natural part of his life. His understanding of God’s will had come to him from close communion with God, rather than through study of the Word. Then when Dave was in the service, he experienced a time that felt as though Gods presence had left him.
    GOD’S WORD ESTABLISHES HIS LOVE IN OUR HEARTS
    Dave didn’t understand why God didn’t speak to him as He did before. But since we have been married and are both in full-time ministry, Dave can see God’s purpose in letting him experience that time of silence. When he felt all alone, he had to learn how to live all over again because he had depended on God’s voice for everything. When his feelings changed he had to seek security that transcended “feelings.” He had to learn that God’s promises are true regardless of what our five senses experience.
    God wanted Dave to establish their relationship on the Word that had been given to him. Dave needed to discover the promises that had been made to him in God’s Word and learn that God is faithful to keep His promises no matter how Dave felt. This time, he had to learn how to come back to the intimate position with God through the Word and faith alone.
    As he began to study God’s promises, he saw that God was still as close to him as the days he first began to love God. While feelings waver, God’s Word stands firm as Isaiah also expressed in chapter 40, verse 8:
    The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
    God wanted Dave to depend on His Word — His promises. During that time, Dave became familiar with the Scriptures that confirmed what God had taught him about grace and love. Three years after he left the service he met and married me. God had well prepared him for all of my problems. He had firmly learned not to operate by his feelings. He explains that God’s grace made him able to be patient with me and love me in the midst of my upsets.
    When I was angry, Dave didn’t let it steal his joy. He knew that God was working in us, and he didn’t let our arguments tear him down. By God’s grace during those early years of our marriage and then by faith in His Word, Dave continued to enjoy life even when I was mad. His happiness during my trials made me angry and upset, but at the same time, drew me to him. I wanted what he had.
    I saw stability in Dave that I had never seen in anybody in my whole life. No matter what I did, he remained the same. As the years went by, Dave could look back and see that God was preparing him the whole time for our marriage. When God was revealing Himself to me in those early years, I didn’t realize that He was making me think more like He thinks. And when it seemed that God had left me, He was actually wooing me or drawing me after Him so that I would get into the Word, then depend on His Word.
    DON’T LET ANYONE STEAL YOUR JOY
    It was a key factor to our success that Dave didn’t let me make him unhappy. Many disagreements could be avoided if we didn’t depend upon our spouse to make us happy. Dave’s contentment was in God’s promise not in my compliance.
    Many disagreements could be avoided if we didn’t depend upon our spouse to make us happy.
    When I have shared that in meetings, it really ministers to people. People feel that if they have a problem, they are almost obligated to be unhappy. I was a dependent person with irrational behavior, and I wanted to make Dave codependent on me so I could control him. It seemed fair to me that if I wasn’t happy, he shouldn’t be either!
    Dave was a role model to me, who showed me new ways to handle disappointment and disagreement. I challenged Dave’s stability to the extremes. Sometimes for two and three weeks I wouldn’t say one word to