Marriage can be a beautiful union, when designed God’s way! Although, it can be a challenging journey, when there is opposition from Satan and the various forces he uses to weaken our foundation. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it, build it in vain…”Psalm 127:1. During our twenty-three-years of marriage, my husband and I withstood many challenges by relying on our faith in God. I would love to tell you our marriage has been bliss and always sweet, but we’ve had our share of sunshine, rain, heartaches and pain just like everybody else. What do you do as a couple? How do you survive it all? In many cases, we learned first hand how to build a strong foundation through faith. We learned one struggle at a time, how to search the scriptures to find the promises that God’s word spoke to us concerning our situation, rather than believing what we were seeing at that moment. We stretched our faith and began to work on our mindsets. “Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will for your life.” Romans 12:2. We gleamed from scriptures that would provide guidance and support to navigate those tough times in our marriage. We were able to build on our faith in God, which provided us with the strength to persevere through our storms. We learned to speak ” Grace, great Grace to the mountains!” Zechariah 4:7 and “Peace! Be still!” Mark 4: 39. As a couple, we began to draw closer to God, then closer to each other. God began to work through the Holy Spirit in me first, the path of least resistance, then my husband. Through scripture I was trained, by the Holy Spirit, and by many teachings in the area of Spiritual Warfare. As we united our faith and stood together in unity, God bestowed upon us a Commanded Blessing! Psalms133:1-3. As our prayer life became stronger, so did our prayers! The “anointing to destroy” evil yokes began to manifest itself in our lives, Praise God! The more time we intentionally spent in the presence of God, He began to transform us both. God is patient with us “He makes all things beautiful in His time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11. Attending church alone was not enough, prayer alone was not enough, but when we added fasting and prayer together, it was a real game changer, we became a force together against the real enemy! The old way of thinking had become new, how we talked, walked and represented the Kingdom of God was now our priority. We understood that faith and patience were required. James 1:4 says ” but let patience have its perfect work.” We made a committment against all odds that “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15. Through our renewed faith, we were able to overcome many obstacles and challenges that could have easily destroyed our marriage. But God, in His infinite wisdom had mercy upon us! Romans 9:15 says “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and compassion on whom I have compassion.” Ultimately, His love for us prevailed and provided us with the endurance to build a stronger, lasting marriage and to help equip others to do the same!