John Markum

You know you are mature enough to get married if…

  1. You have a job and pay your own bills. Don’t make excuses. Just get a job!
  2. You can put someone else’s needs before your own.
  3. You are honest with yourself regarding the areas you need improvement.
  4. (Guys) You are capable of leading a wife/family in the right direction.
  5. (Ladies) You are humble enough to follow a man’s leadership without being a doormat.
  6. You have a specific, high degree of certainty of what you want to do in life, and a realistic plan on how to get there.
  7. You’re not trying to run from anything by getting married (i.e. your parents, job, ex, etc.)
  8. You realize that you will not do everything perfect and neither will your spouse. In other words, you’re honest about your faults, and forgiving of your spouse’s.
  9. You can communicate your emotions (guys) without being emotional (ladies).
  10. You see compromises on non-moral issues as a win-win, because you got some of what you wanted, and made your better-half happy as well. Everything doesn’t have to be your way.

Things that make me happy…

  1. My wife’s smile.
  2. My kids running to see me when I come home.
  3. Getting to baptize people.
  4. Seeing someone trust God in a big way.
  5. Seeing my leadership team’s passion.
  6. Hearing people in my ministry geek-out over what God is doing.
  7. Cooking for my wife.
  8. Rocking out to some music and drinking Mt. Dew while brainstorming in my office.
  9. Winning at RISK over xbox live.
  10. My kids laughter.

My advice for single people (Steven Furtick)

This is a re-post from pastor and author, Steven Furtick. It was so good and timely to singles today, that I had to share it with you. You can follow his blog at stevenfurtick.com

 

There’s a lot of advice I could give to single and dating people.

How to be content in this season you’re in.
The kind of person you should be looking to marry.
Boundaries for when you’re dating.

All of those are good and necessary. But there’s something that most Christians completely miss that’s an essential principle for optimal relationships and marriages. If you don’t get this, it doesn’t matter who you date because it will be a fraction of the relationship God meant for you. And your marriage to them will be too.

Happiness is not finding the right person. It’s being the right person.

I’ve seen countless Christians sabotage their marriages not because they married the wrong person but because when they got married they weren’t the right person for the other person. Not in their chemistry, but in their character.

If two half people get together and they’re not complete in Christ, they don’t make a whole person. They subtract from each other rather than adding to each other and they become more miserable.

There’s only one half you’re responsible for right now. And that’s your half.

Stop looking for the person of your dreams and start becoming someone another person is dreaming about. Make someone else’s dreams become a reality.

A lot of single people make lists of what they want in the person they’re looking for. That’s fine. Just make sure that if the person you’re looking for had the same list, they’d find you.

You may be waiting in this season of your life for God to bring the right person.
Or you may be wondering if the person you’re dating is the right person.

He will do it.
He will reveal it.

In the meantime, be what you’re looking for.

The phrase no pain, no gain has been a mantra for athletes and fitness junkies for years. And what they understand about physical pain needs to be broadened to a much more general use in all of our lives. Pain hurts. That's the whole problem. No one enjoys it, and if someone does, we rightfully

The Premium of Pain