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shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
    Philippians 4:6,7
    If more people would actually pray for their struggling relationships, I believe they would see peaceful changes in their marriages. Too often, people spend all their waking thoughts on their problems instead of on their relationship with God. Consequently, they miss out on the peace that God wants to bring them.
    Peace was not even a concept in the early days of our marriage. Six years into our marriage, Dave was possibly at a point that if he could have asked for a second chance, he would have offered God another rib and said, “Lord, how ‘bout a new model; this one isn’t working!” Fortunately, Dave didn’t trade me in on a new wife. He did ask God to change me in the areas that were causing us so much pain, and after a period of time, I did begin to change in those areas. It was during his time of intercession that I began reading and studying the Word.
    I began to study the Word, but typical to when a person is changing, I appeared to get worse before I got better. The Word was convicting me and fortunately, Dave didn’t stop praying for me. When we share about this time in our lives, I have heard Dave say, “When you are praying for somebody in an area and they get worse, that’s not the time to stop praying. That’s the time to get encouraged. Most people give up when they pray for somebody and a person gets worse because they think their prayers are not working. But in reality God is beginning to deal with them, and their flesh is getting all upset.”
    There will be a transition period so if you keep praying during that period of time, they’ll get through it and will be changed in that area. Too often Christians give up praying because they want instantaneous success and immediate answers.
    Jesus told us to ask and keep asking, to seek and keep seeking, and to knock and keep knocking until the door opens that we want to enter. Matthew 7:8 promises a response:
    For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.
    When God was dealing with me, I felt more stubborn than ever before I started to improve. It can make you mad to find out that you are the one who needs to make changes instead of the one who you think is irritating your life. When Dave saw how irritable I was becoming, he became encouraged instead of discouraged.
    It is so important to understand that a process takes time, and time is something of which God has plenty. He is not in a hurry when it comes to working things out. He knows that eternity outweighs the longevity of today. He will work with us until the work is complete, no matter how long it takes. When you see that God is dealing with your loved one, don’t give up but rejoice and keep praying.
    It takes time to receive the blessing. So many people want everything to be big now. It’s not going to be big now. You are going to have to go through a learning process or a transition of metamorphosis like the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. There are many things that must happen in that process. When God completes the work in your marriage, you won’t regret any of the process that it took to get where He wants you. The happiness will be so complete that the process will no longer matter. But don’t give up in the middle of the process. God had something great in store for both partners of a marriage when He promised that they would become one. If you are having problems in your marriage: Don’t give up!
    God had something great in store for both partners of a marriage when He promised that they would become one.
    STAND FIRM
    I believe many couples are divorcing after years of marriage because they are not given proper direction on how to stand against the enemies of marriage, of which pride and selfish self-centeredness are two of the worst. There are some good role models, but we have to search for