Online Marriage Book Club: Team Us (Week 8)
Online Marriage Book Club: Team Us (week 8)
Welcome to week five of our online marriage book club! If this is your first time here at Fulfilling Your Vows, we are so grateful to have you. For our current book club, we are working through Team Us: Marriage Together. Be sure to look at the “Something More…” section below the video that gives more candid insight into author Ashleigh and husband Ted’s marriage.
This Week’s Reading (Chapter 7)
This week we are working through Chapter 7. We encourage you and your spouse to read through the introduction together or separately (which ever works best for you) and then schedule a time to chat about it. It is best to write anything down that jumps out at you so you can discuss it further with your spouse. We also encourage you both to pray together asking God to open your heart to receive what He wants to show you each week.
This Week’s Video Discussion
This week we filmed outside again and this time on our private deck outside of our master suite! We are enjoying finding new “locations” to film these videos 🙂 Without any further ado, let’s dive into week 8!
Want to dig deeper? For further study, please visit Ashleigh’s blog for a free downloadable study guide.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this week’s study! Please leave your comments below or go ahead and start a conversation over in the Facebook community!
Something More…
Two days after our fourth daughter was born, Ted was handed a pink slip. Talk about a metaphorical rain on our parade of newborn joy.
It left Ted broken. Here he was, a man with two master’s degrees, over 20 years of work experience, and a mad skill set. Yet suddenly he couldn’t seem to hold a job. He wondered just exactly when had he become such a loser.
But that’s where I came in. And you can bet I took my role seriously.
You see, I became a megaphone.
What do I mean by that? Well, let’s break down the word “megaphone.” According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, “mega” comes from the Greek word megas which means “great,” while phone means “voice.” So a megaphone is a “great voice.”
In those weeks following Dorothy’s birth, I became a “great voice” of encouragement to Ted. When he felt like a failure, post-partum me reminded him he wasn’t. Not in my eyes, the eyes of his four little girls, or in those of our loving Father. Rather, he was a hardworking, loyal husband and papa who happened to hit a rough spot in his career. And this thing called a job — whether he had one or not at the moment — wasn’t emblematic of his identity and worth. Those were found in Christ alone.
Yep, that was me. His cheering section of one.
I believed in him when he couldn’t believe in himself. I fed him hope and courage when it seemed elusive. Not always perfectly. I had my Oscar the Grouch moments. But I think Ted would give me an “A” for overall effort.
Maybe your spouse has hit a rough season too. Maybe it’s unemployment like Ted, or perhaps it’s something else. Health issues. Grief. Finances. Stress. Whatever the source may be, it’s a time period when the odds don’t seem in his or her favor and discouragement is plentiful. When it comes to your down-trodden spouse, you too can be a megaphone — or “great voice” — of biblical encouragement. You can cheer your spouse on so loudly and passionately and consistently with scriptural truth that you drown out the discouraging voices that whisper things like “loser.” Your life-giving words can inspire confidence and hope to well up in your spouse when it’s most needed.
You won’t always do it perfectly. I didn’t. You may even feel discouraged yourself at times. I know I did. But it will make a difference. At least it did for Ted.
See you back here next week!
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