With this last tip on having a thriving marriage, we believe this may be one of the most important! The reason why is this goes hand-in-hand with your spiritual relationship with God. When you are married, you are entering into a covenant with a person you vowed to be with for life UNDER God. So, we answer this question: how do you maintain that spiritual bond with God and your spouse? By cultivating each other's faith. We break it down 5 ways to cultivate each other's faith and give a powerful encouragement to be fighting and praying for your spouse especially in the spiritual realm. We hope y'all have enjoyed all 8 episodes of our podcast series on having a thriving marriage! Be sure to share this podcast series with someone that might enjoy it - you never know the impact it will make for their current or future marriage! If you would like more from us, we send out our Mission-Minded newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

Yes we said it- Your spouse is NOT God. If you set expectations on your spouse that you expect from God, then you will get disappointed. In reality, you might actually be placing your spouse above God, as an idol, a god. Honestly we all have experienced this in some sort of way in our marriages. But, we need to get our priorities straight with God in order to have a thriving marriage. There is a godly order to priorities in our relationships: God, your spouse, your children, your family, your church and friends, and so on. But, God wants to be number one in our lives and nothing else! Your spouse is human - they have fallen short before God just like you. So, we shouldn’t be surprised if we do end up unfulfilled or disappointed – it’s because they are not Jesus for you. At the end of the day, your spouse cannot truly make you fulfilled - only Jesus can! You are a child of God FIRST, then wife or husband, then parent, & so on. We share more on different bible verses, how our current walk with God is a major indication, and the topic of divorce... If you would like more from us, we send out our Mission-Minded newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

This is a really crucial episode in order to have a thriving marriage. We feel like this is a silent struggle for many married couples, comparing your spouse to others. We would take it even further and say this is more prevalent in women due of social media but also for men as well. The thing is we cannot put the blame on other people for making us feel resentful or bitter - it is not up to them to make you feel ok with your life. It all goes back to your heart and the way you truly view your spouse. Is it with love and grace? Or comparison, resentment, and discontentment? There are all kinds of ways to be discontented in your marriage, but we are not saying that you have to be joyful even if they never do anything. It is okay to communicate your feelings to them but you have to approach it in the right way and with a right heart.  Figure out where the discontentment towards your spouse is coming from. The thing is - they may just not know. But, it is not fair to them to compare to them when they do not know you are dealing with the comparison trap and discontentment. If it is truly stemming from social media, you may have to unfollow people, take a social media break, or even delete your apps/accounts for a season or forever.  However, we feel like we only begun to scratch the surface on the subject of comparison within marriage, but we hope you have enjoyed this episode as part of the thriving marriage series and gave you something to think and pray about! If you would like more from us, we send out our Mission-Minded newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

You are not at the end of your relationship journey once you're married. For your love and marriage to keep growing and thriving, you have to realize that the pursuit of your spouse never stops. Think about when you first started dating your now-spouse: you pursued them, called them, texted them, stayed in constant communication,  went on dates weekly or even more, told them you loved them all the time, wanted to spend as much time with them as possible, and more. This passion and fierceness over someone you love - it is not meant to last forever. Three reasons that this type of passionate love does not last: it burns too quickly, it was not meant to sustain us, and it can become like a wildfire, consuming both of you. However, the love for your spouse is more of a gentle fire in the fireplace that warms you and covers you with warmth and security. BUT, you have to keep the fire going. Think on this: there are several types of ways to pursue your spouse through different intimacies: physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social. This is not to say that we need to always be pursuing them in every area every single day. But it is something to think on when thinking of ways to pursue your spouse (and it's not just in the bedroom!) We get into some ways that we can pursue your spouse; so husbands and wives, listen up for more! If you would like more from us, we send out our Mission-Minded newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

This is episode #4 of our thriving marriage series - halfway there! This will be a tougher episode to digest. We all have said or yelled things to our spouse that we regret or wish we can take back. This is an area that only God can help you in. Only He can give you a softened heart and reveal to you on why you say harsh words or yell. It’s what is from the heart, so that is why we need to check our hearts! God is in the business of changing us from the inside out, so pray over your heart, to rid of the things in your heart that is drawing you away from God and your spouse, for eyes to see what is influencing you (TV, social media, people, music, & such) to treat your spouse this way & cut those off. Most of all, pray for your spouse if this is an area they struggle with too because only God can change their hearts and give them conviction, not you! We have choices to make, daily and each moment, on how we speak to our spouse as well as behind their back. When your tongue goes unchecked, people can get hurt and you may end up hurting yourself as well. The words that we speak LITERALLY speak either LIFE or DEATH over.  Speaking negativity or anything else can create an atmosphere of tension in your home. This will not help you to have a thriving marriage - you just are trying to survive. You want to create a home and atmosphere of peace and gentleness and love and forgiveness - that is part of a thriving marriage! Bible Verses Mentioned: Proverbs 21:23 (NLT); Proverbs 18:21 (MSG); James 1:19 (NLT); Luke 6:45 NLT If you would like more from us, we send out our Mission-Minded newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

Investing in your marriage is the #3 episode of our thriving marriage series and this is a SUPER important one! How do you truly have a thriving marriage? Let's look at marriage like a garden. You have to work and grow it, tend to it, water it, give it sun and shade, and prune the plants. Your marriage can be like a thriving beautiful garden OR it will be full of weeds, decay, and overgrowth due to lack of pruning. If you are not being intentional or taking inventory on what’s going on in your marriage, how will you know HOW and WHERE to invest your time and energy on? This is literally the first step AFTER setting the foundation and being on the same page with the Lord and with each other. You have to invest in your marriage; there is just no way around it. Once you got the foundation settled, it's time to start building on it. We go over 5 ways to start investing in your marriage today! If you would like more from us, we send out our Mission-Minded newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

This is episode #2 of how to have a thriving marriage series - let's get right to it! But, first, let's start out with a question...What foundation is your marriage founded on? Is it God, the world & the culture, or selfishness…truly think on this. If it is not founded on God, then anything that we say or do to “improve” our marriage will not work because it is based on selfishness or following your own heart. But the truth is that in God's world, everything is flipped upside down. Here's a plot twist for you: marriage is not for ourselves. Rather than serving ourselves and our desires, we are to serve one another, like Christ! We each have a God-designed role in marriage: the husband and the wife. Ephesians 5:22-33 covers all the roles for both husbands and wives. The wife is to submit to her husband who represents Christ and the husband is to love his wife, like Christ loves the church. We cover everything on submission, the exceptions to submission, respect, treating each other as equals, and loving one another in this episode for our thriving marriage series! We did a very deep study on Ephesians 5:22-33 on the blog so if you are interested in more, head to the blog post here! ---> https://thesimplemission.com/a-focus-on-marriage-ephesians-5-simple-bible-study-part-2/ If you would like more from us, we send out our Mission-Minded newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

If you are married, we should be enjoying our spouse to the fullest! But, we know that marriages are not perfect, but if both you and your spouse have dedicated your marriage to God and have set Him as your foundation over your lives, then there’s nothing that He cannot do for you, especially within your marriage. Let's go over what God says on how to have a thriving marriage, not just a surviving marriage! We are so excited to share that all of the 7 points we are sharing today will each be its own podcast episode! How To Have a Thriving Marriage will be a series on the podcast for the next few episodes. So, if one or two or really ALL of the points really piques your interest, we will be covering it more deeper in the series! If you would like more from us, we send out our Mission-Minded newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

We are so excited for this episode! This is not just a topic we are passionate about but living the lifestyle of Jesus is something we strive to do daily. Even though we aren't perfect, we share what we've learned on how to live like Jesus and the 3 ways to approach this is just a starting place. If Jesus was with us right now, how would he live in today's current day and age? More often than not, Jesus chose to do life differently and knew where His true identity and worth was in: in His Father alone. This episode covers setting boundaries, choosing silence than the noise, hearing God's voice, the difference between gratitude and discontentment, & slowing down for the sake of the Gospel. We hope you enjoy this episode & God bless!   Bible verses mentioned: Psalm 119:36-37, “Cause my heart to bow before your words of wisdom and not to the wealth of this world. Help me turn my eyes away from illusions so that I pursue only that which is true; drench my soul with life as I walk in your paths.” Luke 10:37, "But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.” If you would like more from us, we send out our email newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol  Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna

We are back after a 9-month hiatus! We have good reason though...we found out we are pregnant and life has changed so much since then. We share updates on our pregnancy so far, when baby is due, our 3-year journey of getting pregnant, & our thoughts on becoming parents. Also, since it is July, it's about the mid-point of the year so let's check in-- how has your 2023 been going so far? We've already passed the 200 days mark of 2023! Time is literally flying by. We know that sometimes it is time to evaluate, pray, and surrender certain areas of your life over to God. We share our thoughts on what we are surrendering, changing, and how we will be slowing down and taking Sabbaths, especially being inspired by a book we read together, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. If you would like more from us, we send out our email newsletter every month, with huge updates from The Simple Mission & from our personal life, simple tips, faith & encouragement, & more – sign up here to get the email before next month. https://mailchi.mp/af1cb198f846/t4jxj4xgol Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesimplemission Follow David on Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidgbond Follow Lianna on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bondlianna