How to Keep Christ at the Center of Your Relationship | Christian Relationship Advice

Hey girls, Tiffany Dawn here, and I’m back
with my husband James. Hey guys! Several of you have written in asking
how do you keep a Christ-centered relationship. Obviously we don’t have all
those answers at all, but we have a few things that have helped us and I’m
hoping they can help you too. And as always comment below what helps you keep a Christ-centered relationship so we can learn from you as well. I’ve heard a lot
of people say that they read the Bible together and pray together, and that is
something that we’ve done a little bit, like we pray together
each night which I love – it’s like my favorite time of the day because I like
get in bed and I just like octopus onto him, like cuddle up, and then we just
like pray together and it’s so sweet and I love it. And we have like done a few
Bible studies together like every so often but it hasn’t been like
consistent. I can count out on one hand. Yeah it’s something we’ve talked about
doing and think, “You know we really want to try this,” and just we have not gotten
it off the ground yet. Yeah but it would be great. Yeah we have
some friends who do that, like Bible studies together everyday even, and they
love it. So that’s a great idea, it’s just not something we’ve really explored. We
more like do our Bible study on our own and then we’ll come together and like
we’ll share what we’re learning with each other and that’s really encouraging
to me because like we both see different perspectives on God. Like I think since
being with James I’ve learned how to love people better and just how
important that is. And I think from Tiffany I’ve learned about how much God
cares about the little details of your life. I think that the most important
part of keeping a Christ-centered relationship is for each person to have
a relationship that is focused on Christ, meaning that each of you has Christ at
the center of your own personal life. It’s so easy especially when you’re
you’re dating or you’re married to someone who’s a Christian to think, “My spouse is
a Christian,” and you can just sort of put your personal relationship with Christ
on cruise control and you can almost just try to glom on to that other
person’s relationship, and think, “Wow you know my spouse learned so much in their
time with God! That’s great and I’m kind of learning from them!” But there’s no
substitute to you spending time with God alone. There’s no substitute. Yeah I
really think that’s the key. If you want a Christ-centered relationship, both of you
need a Christ-centered relationship of your own. I think that really is key.
An analogy we heard once was the analogy of the triangle, so which is if there’s
you and your partner and then God is up here and as you each get closer to God
you get closer to each other. I think another way that we keep Christ at the
center of our relationship is encouraging and empowering each other to be who God made us to be. So like we both have different gifts that God’s given us
and different things in our hearts. So like I love girls ministry – big surprise,
shocker there – but like James loves inner-city ministry. And so I think finding ways to like empower him to go do what he wants to do, and he empowers me to go do what God’s put in my heart to do, and then we’ll
find some things to do together so that we can like serve and love people
together. And that’s really fun, but not everything we do is together. A lot of
our personal ministry is separate, but we’re like praying for each other and
encouraging each other and like providing space for the other to do what
God’s put in their heart to do and to become who God made them to be. Micah 6:8: “What is it that God requires of you, the Prophet asked? And the answer is: Do
justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God.” I think when we see that
in our marriage, when we are each personally embracing that in our marriage, in the way we treat the other person, and in the way we as a trupple – we as a…trupple? We as a couple interact – there is no third – we as
a couple interact with people outside of our marriage – that is a way to honor
God. It’s just walk humbly, love mercy, do justice, and that I think is another way. I think another part of having a Christ-centered relationship is also in
order to glorify God you want to have a healthy relationship. And a healthy
relationship involves doing more than trying to keep your apartment or house
clean, eating together, and watching TV. Netflix and chill. Yeah or just Netflix.
And not that there’s anything wrong with that; we watch a tremendous amount of TV and it really is a lot of fun, and
we love to eat and we love to go out to eat, but I mean your relationship will
start to atrophy if that’s all you do. Yeah. If all you’re doing is sitting on
the couch watching television and eating, your relationship will atrophy. You’ll lose
your muscles. Yeah so it’s really important that you find worthwhile
things to do together. Yeah. Something we enjoy
doing is reading books out loud to one another and we talk about them – that’s
something that’s really good. We enjoy going on walks together. And this is
something we’re still trying to develop too because we have different energy
levels and different interests, so we are trying to find more things to do
together, because you have to do things for your relationship to grow. Yeah. And
not just Christian things; just things that aren’t just watching TV. I
think for James and for a lot of guys, doing things together helps you
feel more connected, and for a lot of girls and like myself, talking about
things helps you feel connected. So you have to find like that happy medium of
having both in your relationship, so you’re growing together and that honors God.
Thirty thousand words a day, ten thousand words a day. Big difference. So those are
our thoughts; that’s what has helped us. And we’re still learning; we’re only two
years into our marriage; got a lot more to go. So we’d love to hear from you! If
you’re married, if you’re dating, please comment like what helps you keep Christ
at the center. Thanks for being here with us! And we’ve got some really cool videos
coming up. We have one this Friday about some awesome breakfast meal ideas for
summer. Next Tuesday we have a video for you guys about how to handle conflict in
a relationship. And then the next Friday we have favorite summer hairstyles and I’ve got
some friends coming on who have gorgeous hair and they’re telling you their
secrets to healthy strong hair. No he’s not one of them. That’d be so weird. I
think my hair is healthy and gorgeous sweetheart. It’s beautiful.
Thank you. Anyway it should be really fun, so come check back. See you Friday!
Love you guys. Bye!