I was discussing with my husband a few weeks ago about how I’ve been an entrepreneur our whole marriage. The ten years we’ve been together, neither of us ever held just one job and I began to reflect how our teamwork had gotten us this far. That’s ten years trusting God wholeheartedly. I got made fun of for rushing to change my last name: I was married on a Saturday and on the following Tuesday, I was at the driver’s license facility and Social Security administration to legally change my name. Though some didn’t come right out and say it this way, they shared I should be illegal and seek out certain benefits before changing my name, as though we would be missing out on great opportunities. I’m glad we didn’t take the advice of others over God’s blessings; besides, how can God bless a union that’s not being honest about making it official legally? Everyone wants to share “Put God first,” but what does that mean if we don’t want to be honest about being legally married?
Who wants to go through all of the planning of the wedding, marriage counselor, marriage license, being before family, friends, and God on that date and then after the ceremony, hold off on “this part and that part” to be legally married?
People would ask me, “So you both file ‘married’ on your taxes? You both share the same bank account?” I share with them “Yes!” because we had started to realize and learn what exactly it meant by putting God first. How can we put God first but we’re lying on our taxes or thinking how to get around this and that so we think we can get more here or there? NO! I can’t expect God to bless our marriage and only trust Him with half of the marriage and not the WHOLE marriage.
It has not been the easiest thing, but trust me, it’s worth it. In the first couple of years of our marriage, I learned from our previous pastor, Bishop Leroy Davis that God is our source and our job is our resource. It was one of those topics that made us reevaluate our thoughts because we wanted to reap everything that God says about marriage.
