10 Questions That Will Transform Your Marriage Forever

By Margaret Feinberg

Marriage is one of the greatest gifts of God-one that we can spend a lifetime unpacking the rich treasures and wonders.

Through marriage, we discover the wonder of grace, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, and love. But anyone who has been married will gently remind that such discoveries take intentionality, persistence and hard work.

My friend, Peter Greer, author of The Danger of Doing Good, is also president and CEO of HOPE International, an organization which specializes in providing microfinance loans that empower people to start their own businesses around the world.

While spending time together a few weeks ago, Peter mentioned that he developed his own system to check up his marriage. Not only did he create his own series of questions, but he built a spreadsheet with the results of the data. He tracked how his marriage was doing over the last few years. I was more than intrigued.

Peter explained that a few years ago he came to a startling realization. Though he regularly monitored indicators on health and welfare programs through his organization, he rarely asked his wife how she was doing or feeling.

He decided to develop a marriage impact assessment - 10 questions to determine how his work impacted his family in order to determine how he could better support his wife.

Here are Peter Greer's 10 Marriage Impact Assessment Questions:

1. Do my actions show you that apart from Jesus Christ, I have no higher love?

2. How well are we serving together?

3. How well am I encouraging your spiritual growth?

4. How well am I maximizing the time we have together?

5. How is our prayer life together?

6. How well am I supporting you to grow in your gifts/skills?

7. Are we discipling (ie. making disciples of) our children well together? How convinced are you that parenting is truly a partnership?

8. How well am I caring for your friends?

9. How is our physical expression of our love [ahem, the language of this question has been edited]?

10. What can I do to love you better?

My husband, Leif, and I are beginning asking these questions and wrestle through the answers.

I'd like to invite you to take the initiate that Peter did with his marriage. What questions do you need to be asking yourself and your spouse? What are the great unspokens of your relationship?

Will you take time this week to have an honest conversation with your spouse about where you are and how you can you can strengthen your marriage?

Let's learn to cheer each other on in our marriages and relationships.

____________________________________

Margaret Feinberg (www.margaretfeinberg.com) is a popular speaker and author of Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God and the 7-session DVD Bible study.