Courtship Never Ends

#marriage #love #courtship #sacrificeWelcome to the Inspiring Marriages Podcast.  We are Jeff and Teresa Fields.   The music that you heard during our intro was composed and recorded by our son, Joseph Taylor Fields.We have been happily married for 32 years.  We have 3 wonderful grown children, a fantastic son-in-love and a precious grand baby.As we share our story, our desire is to inspire couples to build their friendships and thus build their marriages in all areas: spiritually, emotionally, romantically and physically.  Go to our web page inspiringmarriages.net. There you can access all of our previous episodes including all the show notes.  Below the episodes, there is a “keep in touch” section. There you can sign up to receive our latest offerings for free.https://inspiringmarriages.net/Courtship Never EndsWebster1828 COURTSHIP, noun1. The act of soliciting favor.2. The act of wooing in love; solicitation of a woman to marriage.SOLICITA'TION, noun1. Earnest request; a seeking to obtain something from another with some degree of zeal and earnestnessFA'VOR, noun [Latin favor faveo.]1. Kind regard; kindness; countenance; propitious aspect; friendly disposition.WOOING, participle present tense [from woo.] Courting; soliciting in love.Courtship — it is a period of time where a man and a woman dedicate themselves to learn more about each other and to seek God together to determine if it is God’s will for them to get married.  Discuss each other’s visions, goals and dreams to see if they are compatible.“Courtship is a commitment - it’s a promise not to play with another person’s heart.”  - Joshua Harris“Courtship is not  just until you get married, it is forever”“Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?”  Amos 3:3 (NLT)BOTH person's dreams, visions, goals — ARE equally important.  Courtship should not be a place where your dreams go to die.The fallacy of “soulmates: Lie: Zeus took people and tore them in-half. A person could only be happy to find their other half - the one that matches their soul1. Falsehood: I need to find “the one". Truth: You need to become the one. 2. If I could just find my soulmate, then I will be happy.  Everything would be so easy. the truth is relationships are hard.The last thing that we need is someone who matches up to our souls. Can you imagine two sloppy people? Two people who are always late? Two people with poor diets? Two people with anger issues? Our souls are our minds, wills and emotions.Continuing our story: weekend revelationsYou can listen to our audio podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Amazon podcast. Please leave us a review.  You can watch this podcast on YouTube. Search for the Inspiring Marriages channel. You can even listen to our podcast using your smart devices. Just say “Alexa, play the Inspiring Marriage Podcast.”Friendship builder:Read a Marriage Book Together.There isn’t just one way to do this.1. You can read aloud to each other.  Taking turns reading each paragraph or passage.2. Our friends, Trey and Lea Morgan The Stronger Marriage Podcast (https://strongermarriageworkshops.com/ ) suggest one reads a passage underlining what stood out to them.  Then the other reads it doing the same, but a different color.  Then you go over together and talk about why you underlined what you did.  Prompts discussion.You can get "Wisdom For Your Marriage" here:https://a.co/d/aK3VMNoYou can connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Please like, follow and subscribe.  You can also connect with us via e-mail at [email protected].  You can leave questions and suggestions on how to make this podcast better and what topics you would like us to explore.