Welcome to God Today. My name is Kathy Tolleson. I am here to talk about having a vision for your marriage. My husband and I have been business consultants and we also work with a lot of ministers. One of the first things we want to make sure they have is a really good vision statement. We find very few couples that ever have a vision statement for their marriage. We didn’t realize it when we first married 33 years ago. We began with the beginning statement because we wanted to be an example marriage in the body of Christ. We talked about it, we felt like we saw too few examples. We saw people working together, or people living together, but what we truly believed that the Lord had for marriages, we didn’t see enough of. We decided we would be an example marriage.
That was the first part of a marriage statement that has developed over the years. When we do our marriage boot camp, one of the things we do at the end is we teach them about establishing a vision for their marriage. They sit down together and begin to pray with the Lord, talk to each other, and begin to clarify the vision. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18, that “without a vision, people perish.” Without a vision, a marriage perishes. Many times we never really articulate it or write it down. When we do that, clarity begins to come. Unity begins to come. Agreement begins to come. I am going to read our vision statement to you in just a minute, but our vision statement makes us get out of bed and go to boot camp twice a week. Our vision statement has required us to examine our relationships with other people. Our vision statement is something that requires us to work through our issues so that we are able to be that example of marriage.
Having that vision statement can help you decide where you are going to spend money, where you are not. I am going to read our vision statement to you today. As I said, it developed over the years, but you get an idea of what I am talking about. This is Rodney and Kathy’s vision statement: “We are called to have an example marriage for the body of Christ and the world. God is first in our marriage and our marriage is our second priority after our relationship with Him. Our marriage is a healing place for ourselves and others. We are committed to staying physically healthy so we can enjoy each other, our family, our ministry, and life. Our marriage is a place of adventure and never boring. It is an evangelistic and ministry tool. We continue to fall in love with each other on a daily basis. [That is true] Our friends are motivated, young at heart, and support and appreciate our marriage. Our marriage is supernatural. We have strong boundaries and do not allow ourselves or others to bring strife, criticism, and inappropriate joking into our marriage. Our marriage is a refuge and safe place where we can be totally honest and fully ourselves. The anointing of God and His favor is upon every area of our marriage. Because we have a Kingdom marriage it is full of righteousness, peace, and joy.”
I want to encourage you today. If you have never thought about that, or you have never taken the time to do it – get with the Lord and your spouse. Set aside some quiet time and begin to pray. Really begin to speak out of your hearts to each other about what you believe that God has called your marriage to be in the earth. What is the purpose of your marriage? Begin to write that down. It may take some time. Ours wasn’t like that when we first started, but it ended up being a vision statement that we are so excited about. I pray you will develop one, too. Amen.