Have you ever stood, hand in hand with your partner, facing a gale that threatened to tear you apart? Angie and Matt Baughman did just that, weathering a storm of intense scrutiny that challenged to undermine their marriage. They, along with Ron and Halee Wood, join us this week on The Vision-Driven Marriage podcast to share their extraordinary journeys of faith, love, and unwavering commitment. Their stories are not just narratives; they are lifelines thrown into the tumultuous seas of marriage, offering hope and guidance for staying afloat during the roughest of tides.
The Baughmans open their hearts to reveal a juncture in their lives that became a testament to the strength found in unity, a unity that only comes from following Christ. Matt's resolve to stand beside Angie in a battle that raked up past traumas transformed a moment of vulnerability into one of impenetrable solidarity. Ron and Halee, too, unfold layers of their relationship, renewing their vows annually and illustrating how shared grief and loss can become the bedrock for healing and transformation. Through their eyes, we see God's divine work at hand, knitting together the fabric of relationships into a masterpiece of resilience and restored hope.
Our episode comes full circle as Ron and Halee revisit the essence of marriage vows and the traditions that breathe life into them. Their story, along with the Baughmans', is not just heard; it's felt. It's a testament to the power of a blessed marriage rooted deeply in faith. As you join us in celebrating Valentine's Day all month long, may your own vows echo back to you, not just as words once spoken, but as a living promise that grows and evolves, fortified by the grace of shared experiences and the relentless pursuit of a partnership driven by divine love.
Have you ever stood, hand in hand with your partner, facing a gale that threatened to tear you apart? Angie and Matt Baughman did just that, weathering a storm of intense scrutiny that challenged to undermine their marriage. They, along with Ron and Halee Wood, join us this week on The Vision-Driven Marriage podcast to share their extraordinary journeys of faith, love, and unwavering commitment. Their stories are not just narratives; they are lifelines thrown into the tumultuous seas of marriage, offering hope and guidance for staying afloat during the roughest of tides.
The Baughmans open their hearts to reveal a juncture in their lives that became a testament to the strength found in unity, a unity that only comes from following Christ. Matt's resolve to stand beside Angie in a battle that raked up past traumas transformed a moment of vulnerability into one of impenetrable solidarity. Ron and Halee, too, unfold layers of their relationship, renewing their vows annually and illustrating how shared grief and loss can become the bedrock for healing and transformation. Through their eyes, we see God's divine work at hand, knitting together the fabric of relationships into a masterpiece of resilience and restored hope.
Our episode comes full circle as Ron and Halee revisit the essence of marriage vows and the traditions that breathe life into them. Their story, along with the Baughmans', is not just heard; it's felt. It's a testament to the power of a blessed marriage rooted deeply in faith. As you join us in celebrating Valentine's Day all month long, may your own vows echo back to you, not just as words once spoken, but as a living promise that grows and evolves, fortified by the grace of shared experiences and the relentless pursuit of a partnership driven by divine love.
Welcome to the Vision Driven Marriage Podcast. If you're struggling in your marriage, or maybe you're wondering if it's even salvageable, before you give up or before you let things get too hard, let us come alongside you and help you solidify your marriage. We offer biblical encouragement and insight to help you strengthen your marriage.
Speaker 3:
Welcome to a special episode of the Vision Driven Marriage Podcast, where the tapestry of love, faith and restoration is woven through the heartfelt testimonies of couples whose journeys illuminate the transformative work of God within a marriage. As we embrace the month of February and the celebration of Valentine's Day, we are privileged to share the inspiring stories of Angie and Matt Bauman and Ron and Hailey Wood. In the ebb and flow of life, marriages often encounter trials that test the very fabric of their union. Yet within the depths of challenges, there exists a beacon of hope, a testament to the power of faith and the divine orchestration of restoration. Through the valuable narratives of Angie and Matt and Ron and Hailey, we're invited into the sacred spaces where God's grace breathes life into brokenness. So grab a cup of coffee, settle in and allow the inspiring testimonies of Angie and Matt Bauman and Ron and Hailey Wood to ignite your hearts with hope and faith.
Speaker 3:
Welcome to the Vision Driven Marriage Podcast a celebration of love, restoration and the unyielding grace of God. Today we are here with Angie Bauman of Steady On and her husband Matt. Angie and Matt welcome.
Speaker 2:
Thank you Thanks for having us.
Speaker 3:
Oh, we're so excited so we're getting testimony, we're getting your story today on how God has provided transformation or restoration in or through your marriage.
Speaker 2:
Yes, that means go right. So Matt and I talked about this ahead of time and we just wanted to share a story. I'll tell you the end of the story and then I'll tell you the story. The end of the story is and then I trusted him more.
Speaker 2:
But the beginning of the story is it was 2016 and I had been nominated for a position on the board where our children went to school. We have two boys and they were at a small Christian school here in town and I had been very active with the parent organization and several of the parents. A couple of board spots at the same time opened up and they were accepting nominations from parents, faculty I don't even remember who and they had to write letters or whatever, and several of the parents in the school community nominated me for a position on the board, and that seems like a great thing and a great fit and a natural progression in my leadership at the school. But what happened fairly quickly was that I began to get a little bit of pushback and then I had to submit documents and a lengthy resume. I had to go into several multi-hour long interviews and it became apparent pretty quickly that there was objection to my being a part of the school board, and it was interesting because I, on one hand, I got it was pretty traumatic for me because they questioned me very personally, they vetted me, they called people about me and then there were like some rumors you know how things are in a little community, right and so it created a lot of trauma. And I've spoken on your show before Thank you for having me back, by the way about abuse in my past and a time when I spoke up about abuse and wasn't believed, and so anytime that I feel like someone's trying to either, that I'm misunderstood, I'm not believed, some of those things are very they bring up those things in me, right, and so I was dealing with that, but at the same time, I was also had sort of this I don't know self-righteous indignation Is that the right thing to say? I was mad, but also I was like I'm good for this job and I'm going to hold my own and I'm going to keep pressing through, and I had been involved in an interview that lasted a couple of hours and they were all men that were interviewing me. So that's like a that's a different dynamic, right, and I left there pretty, pretty down because it was very pointed, very personal.
Speaker 2:
And then, after I don't know a few weeks, matt can help me fill in the gaps here in just a minute. But after a few weeks I was called back in for a second round of interviews and that time Matt went and he stood in the hallway. I was very nervous about going back and he stood in the hallway and I remember coming out and I don't even know what I looked like, but I knew what I felt like that I just felt sort of like emotionally violated. I just I don't mean to be too dramatic, but that's really what I felt like and my husband was standing there in the hallway and he said to me you're not doing this by yourself anymore, you're not. You're not going in there by yourself anymore, you're not going to take their calls, you're not going to be called back in for interviews and all this. And it began to take a turn after that because Matt began to stand not just with me passively, but with me in a way in our marriage that he'd never done before. He began to say, no, actually they're going to talk to me and actually, if they want to talk to you, they'll talk to us both. And he kind of like. He began and I was nervous about that at first because even though we'd been married for quite some time by then probably 18 years, I'm thinking, if I do my math right we'd been married a long time by then.
Speaker 2:
I struggled with trust issues. I really did because of some of the things in my past and I always was preparing for myself and I didn't even know this. I was always preparing myself for the time I would do the wrong thing and he would leave, because other times in my life I'd done the wrong thing and he would leave. And I thought, I really thought, and I had the Lord really began to open my heart about this. What if those men are right? What if I am bad? What if I'm not trustworthy? What if my voice is no good? What if I these things that they're saying passively about me and Matt figures out that I'm lying and they're right?
Speaker 2:
Like it was pretty deep inside me some of the things that were coming up, but Matt didn't go anywhere and he began to stand with me and for me and that helped me trust him differently than I'd ever trusted him in our marriage and through that it helped me trust the Lord, because I saw in Matt what the Lord does for me also and it was a real turning point for me personally. Yeah, for me personally it was a turning point, but it was also a real turning point in our marriage. So I'm going to, I'm going to quit. Let Matt chime in. What did I forget? Or what do you need to? What do you need to correct? Perhaps?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, no in my retelling.
Speaker 4:
I know, I think that's a really good recap of the situation and you know, I think for me what became apparent was and as the years have gone on since then, even you know you're on a journey that you talk about. You have been your whole life really, of overcoming experiences that were very traumatic and I don't, I knew that, but I never really respected, maybe, or fully understood the depths of it or the impact of it on relationships, including our own, and I might see it in other ways with you and other people, but sometimes I would maybe assume but it doesn't affect us or I never recognized how it affected us. Perhaps, and this was a case that it's like right in your face, like this is an opportunity to I'm watching, really, another traumatic experience and participating in it from the sidelines, if you will, or viewing it from the sidelines and and I remember those conversations of how this unfolded and this wasn't the first time we had tension at the school and you know so it was kind of compiling previous issues with the way they treated you but treat people in general, treated people in general, and it built to this situation that we really had trusted that maybe this was a different place now in terms of your ability to be accepted there in a board position, and you earned it, I mean really in so many ways, and there's really no good reason that this would be so complicated. And so it came down to feelings. You know, two hour interview and then we don't know, and then we're going to have to have you back.
Speaker 4:
And I remember, I remember being in the hallway and wanting to just go in there and be like knock it off. I don't even know what's going on, except for it's not right. I don't know what's wrong because I can't hear it all, but it's not right. But I remember just that. It's that sense of sort of helplessness, a little bit of watching this unfold, being present while it unfolds and wanting to continue to be a cover or a shield for you. And you know it took us a little time to get there, but I remember, that's it.
Speaker 4:
I remember that night, that's the end we're never going to send you back in there again because they've broken this trust. I mean they're so unreasonable, unfair and ridiculous really, and you don't expect it. I mean you don't in one way, I guess, based on our previous history with them a little bit, you expect. You know there'll be a little part here that we won't like or whatever, but this will go fine because it's. How can you not accept my wife?
Speaker 2:
You not love Angie.
Speaker 4:
Right, right, exactly, and to watch it it just became so hurtful, needlessly and dragged out, and I remember telling you, I think, at home that night, that I'm like that's it, you're not, you're never. You're just not going to go back in there by yourself again, or maybe at all I mean, it was so bad.
Speaker 2:
And in the way that only God can do one of the. You know, that's a real marker for me. That's one of the most painful not the, but you know that's a seriously like painful situation in my life. You know, it's kind of one of those markers that we happen where, like that was a really difficult season and yet it was such a turning point in our marriage. It, for everything that was bad, as only God can right, he brought something so good and developed a trust and a closeness between the two of us that didn't like fix some of the things that were wrong, you know, and magically, but it set our feet on a path where we were, we became more committed to becoming more committed to each other, if that makes sense. I didn't expect him to show up for me like that, I really didn't.
Speaker 3:
And when he did?
Speaker 2:
I had to reexamine my expectations. Go ahead, leslie, yeah, and then to have him step in as a protector.
Speaker 3:
Like you know he described, he wanted to pick up that shield for you.
Speaker 3:
And how like that is God, you know, in our relationship with the Lord, because he is our protector he's our shield and that sometimes the Lord gives us our husbands to do that, you know, to be the protector for us. I think they're built that way. You know there's something innate in them. I remember hearing a story about that. Beth Moore had told that when she put out her children's book and it was set in a kingdom, you know, with princesses and princes and all the things, and she had a community party where she invited children to dress up and she expected them to dress up as princesses and princes. But what she was surprised to see is that they dressed up as princesses and knights.
Speaker 1:
No surprise, right yeah.
Speaker 3:
And it was a surprise for us. You know, when our husbands step up as the knight, you know that they want to come in and protect and save and you know that's.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I think that's beautiful, yeah, and I think in this case it became very apparent to you that a lot of this has to do with this is a woman that's asking to have a seat at the table at that school, who's very capable and already making One who asks questions.
Speaker 4:
Yes, very, very, I would say, helpful and trying to you know what we thought would be a way to help strengthen the school. And you know you go into these things thinking well, people want to do the right thing, I mean, and you want the right thing for the school and everybody has a common vision, but the reality is no, that's not true. They have their own vision and the right vision is just simply that we want to grow the school and make it stronger, make it better, and, you know, grow it and things like that. And what we learned was their vision of the school was radically different than worrying about how it operates. You know.
Speaker 3:
But the Lord used that situation to strengthen your marriage in a way that-. Right that might have come more slowly if you didn't have this opportunity.
Speaker 2:
Well, and then it invited. The really big question for me is are you going to count on him next time? Because you know, because my safety position, if you will, was always don't count on anybody, and then you'll minimize your disappointment, including Matt. I mean I didn't count on. I mean I counted on him for little things, don't get me wrong, but I was always hey Matt this, hey Matt that. But you know, deep down, I really felt like if he needs to stand with me and it might be unpopular or not be easy or not look good on him he may not do it.
Speaker 2:
And so now, even now, these years later, when something happens, I wrestle with that question am I going to choose to count on you? And it's the same question that the Lord asks us. I think you know, or you know, do you trust me? That's always the question he's asking. Do you trust me? And he's revealed himself faithful and reminds me of this particular situation. Remember how you didn't expect him to show up for you and stand with you and he did. That's me too, like you know, sometimes it's, and I will, even when you haven't expected me to. I don't, yeah, so it has grown me in a lot of ways.
Speaker 4:
And for me, I think it calls a question of you know, are you doing everything you can to love your wife the way Christ loves his people, his church? That's a big question, because Jesus loved his church enough to die for it. Right and so, on a day-to-day basis, and we'd all say, well, will you die for your wife, your kids and all that? Of course you would, but on a day-to-day basis. It's not very often that it's a big consequence like that. It's the little things. And are you putting your spouse first? You know you're putting your wife first and respecting her place.
Speaker 2:
You know, in and do you put yourself on the line in a situation when people are calling your? Wife a liar, or when they're saying she's not worthy. It's one thing to comfort me at home and it's another thing to sit in someone's office who has a real issue with me and say this is you know so it yeah, so in a way I'd say, yes that. You know, that was like that to me. You know, you were offering yourself and risking yourself in order to stand for me, and that changed my heart.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I love you, thank you, I love you, yeah, and.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much for sharing that, because one of the beautiful things in the testimony that you've just given to us, something that God does for us in such an amazing way through the midst of some of our difficult times, you were able to step up and say you're not alone, you don't have to go through this.
Speaker 1:
You don't have to be alone in this. And what an awesome thing when God brings us together as husbands and wives to remember what we ought to be remembering all the time. We're not alone. But sometimes we forget that, especially when we get really busy with the wonderful stresses of life because there's so many things we get to do that keep our focus on the doing, and sometimes we forget I'm not alone. I'll never be alone. And God reminds us of that same truth when he shows us through Jesus Christ, we are never alone. He will always be with us. What a powerful testimony that I know will encourage so many of our listeners.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, angie and Matt, for being with us today. It has been a wonderful pleasure.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for inviting us to share.
Speaker 4:
Thank you, yeah.
Speaker 3:
Joining us now are Ron and Hailey Wood. Today we're here talking with Ron and Hailey Wood and they're going to be sharing a testimony with you that is just gonna instill hope and encourage us all. Welcome, ron and Hailey.
Speaker 6:
Hi you guys. It's so good to be back and we're happy to be here.
Speaker 1:
It's so good to see you. We just have one question as we get started today how has God provided transformation or restoration, either in or through your marriage?
Speaker 6:
Well, I'm going to start. Instead of giving you all of the answers to your questions, I'm going to share a little piece of information, just a tradition that Ron and I have in our marriage. We've been married a little over 20 years now, and each year on our anniversary, one of the things that we do is we pull out the marriage vows that we wrote to each other on our wedding day and we speak them to each other again. Sometimes we include our kids and sometimes it's just the two of us, and we did that again this year on our anniversary, and something really stood out to me. So I'm going to read you just a little blip from my wedding vows to Ron.
Speaker 6:
Okay, it says what an awesome God we serve. He constantly challenges us and gives us the strength to accomplish anything. In Proverbs 31, god gives us a very detailed description of a worthy woman. He challenges me to be strong, work day and night in order to provide for my family, be kind and loving to others and to smile at the future. I love a challenge, especially when it's God's will. So when I read that this year, I thought to myself who was that? Spunky young girl? Yeah, so much energy and so much love for life and that is true. That is truly who I have always been at my core. Something that has been difficult for me in our marriage is shortly after we were married, ron and I began to face the challenges that came along with me having sexual abuse in my history.
Speaker 6:
One reason I was so excited about this challenge I shared in our wedding vows is because I knew how much work God had done in and through me, even with my past trauma and losses that I had experienced, and I knew I was serving a powerful God. I didn't become a Christian until I was an adult, and he had molded and shaped me, so, even going into our marriage, ron knew about my history of abuse. What neither of us knew, though, was what that level of intimacy was going to stir up in me because of that, and so, all of a sudden, that spunk that you saw on that young woman was kind of drained out. I remember going from feeling like I was on top of the world to what have I done? There's something wrong with me. And not only is there something wrong with me, but I drug this dude into it Like oh no, and I just felt so defeated, and that was very, very difficult for me Fast forward into our marriage. Here we are 20 years, and I can tell you that, as of now, we have had about four separate episodes of what I would consider significant loss and trauma, and some of them are shared between us, like the year that our son died and I had a significant medical event and my mom died, all within months of each other. I mean, it just knocked us off our rocker for several years, you know. And then fast forward a few years after that. It was when we were able to complete the adoption of our youngest son, and it was beautiful and wonderful. But, you know, we're inviting this little soul into our family that has a significant history of his own and that required us to make major adjustments. So I stepped away from my career, so we had a huge financial change and my dad ended up moving close to us and then he soon thereafter got diagnosed with cancer and four months later he was gone. And then fast forward to right now. We are in this always.
Speaker 6:
I often only podcast and talk about things that like, maybe we've already been through, but right now we're going through such a significant event. In the last year and a half, I lost my best friend and my sister very tragically and suddenly, and so, hayley, we're sorry, thank you, thank you. And so I know we are in a season right now that is changing us right, especially me. It's not that Ron does not grieve the things that have happened this year, but they certainly have affected me differently than him, you know. And so when I read these vows again this year and I saw that spunky, young, you know late 20s woman like you know saying these things, not only did I miss all these people that I've had to say goodbye to, it made me miss myself. I'm like who is that girl? Where is she? Is she ever coming back? You know, and as we really thought about the question that you guys asked us to share about today, I knew the word restore was my part of the story, because I think when Ron and I got married, he thought he was marrying this young, spunky girl and that person is still in me and that person is coming back.
Speaker 6:
I've just seen it time and time again what God does in me and through me in these very hard seasons. But when I think about the way that Ron, who didn't necessarily sign up to be with someone who had dealt with so much and was going to deal with so much loss and grief and trauma, how he has continued to do that year after year after year, and when I think about who God is, that God is all loving and just his compassion and his ability to restore and the way that he is equipped, ron, to be a part of that process, with me Just thinking that Ron is going to get tired. Or one of my favorite things about Ron is that my family is amazing, my extended family is amazing and we come from some really hard places, and one of the things that plagues my family is just severe mental health disorders, which is part of what led to my sister's early death. And for Ron, he he hasn't ever just said to me like oh my gosh, why does it always have to be this way? Or anything like that he has. Routinely he is just in the bunker with me, he's ready to go and he absolutely loves and adores my family and has never made me feel guilty for loving and being in it with them also.
Speaker 6:
And so one of the reasons that every time we've had these significant events that I have been able to have hope and continue to come back is I had someone standing beside me that wasn't shaming me or saying, yeah, but what about me? Or any of those things. I got to watch him grow in his own faith and figure out how to lead and walk alongside me in circumstances that he did not understand and he didn't really know what to do, but he did it with such humility and care for me along the way, and so I entered our marriage as a very optimistic but broken human being, and I've never had to question if I'm lovable, if I'm valuable or any of those things, because I absolutely have somebody standing and walking alongside me who is imperfect but very, very committed to not just our marriage but specifically to my healing and my growth.
Speaker 3:
I love that. I just love it. No like, and that's the characteristics of Christ that you know. He's, like you described it, down in the bunker with us. You know that with Christ we're never alone, and so the Christ likeness that Ron was able to bring into the marriage has just been a healing place for you. I love that, yes.
Speaker 5:
Well, I mean so Haley's story, her version of it, and you know, as you both know, she's more of the mouthpiece of our relationship and our ministry. So I mean, I have some things to say, but it might not be as well put as Haley. She's the professional speaker. I'm paid to listen.
Speaker 3:
That's the dynamic we have to, like you know.
Speaker 5:
Right, so but yeah, she makes me sound so much better than I was at times and maybe that's because, like, like, maybe what she saw was different than some of the things that were going on in my mind with like Dow and and maybe some complaining that I didn't actually voice, but just like, oh man, you know this is so hard, but but you know, so, while that, while that's true, I mean she, she sees that what I've realized is how much I've transformed and how much God has informed me over the course of our marriage. And you know, going back to the beginning, when she talked about our the abuse that you know, the first at least five years of our marriage were difficult because of that.
Speaker 5:
That was something that I had not expected and at the time did not know what to do with you know I was not really that very trauma, informed and didn't know what to do with it, but it led me to learn to put aside my desires and focus on helping her to heal. And that just looked different all the time and I didn't always know what to do. But I started learning what not to do and kind of going with that, you know, and in the moment it was, it was a lot of times difficult and I was often tempted to think, well, what about me? But but over time I came to understand how God was using that situation and other situations to show me how relying on him, laying my selfishness aside and pursuing holiness despite how I felt and what I wanted, didn't mean that I was going to receive nothing. You know, I like I think it's Gary Thomas sacred marriage, he says.
Speaker 5:
What if marriage was never intended to make you happy but instead to make you holy? I mean, I don't know that we really think about that when we go into it, right, and what that means and how that that transformation is is hard and it can be anyway. At least I can speak for my experience. It wasn't always easy. So I can say God has helped me develop mercy and patience, which has really served me well throughout our marriage and, again, even in my profession as a therapist. You know to be able to offer mercy and patience to people and and God showed me that my relationship with Hailey can be sweeter. If I don't demand, you know my way and when I step out of God's way to allow him to do the fixing, that's not my job, that's his job and to do the transforming, which ends up being better than anything I could do.
Speaker 5:
And I do remember just one brief story when Hailey had a bit of a trauma reaction when we were in a car and my mom was with us and she was so dysregulated she got out of the car. We weren't moving towards we're in a drive through, which kind of always stirs me up to I don't like drive through, but anyway, we're in a drive through and she gets, and I just remember not knowing what to do. But I remember telling my mom when she gets in the car don't say anything, don't do anything, just let it go. I got this and I just had to believe that I had this. All I knew was just like don't, don't, don't do anything else to stir this up.
Speaker 5:
Because you know, I have learned to trust that, that God, that that Hailey is going to go to God with this and she's going to work through it.
Speaker 5:
And and less than 24 hours later we were having a talk and she was explaining what had happened and how she got so triggered and dysregulated and and it all made sense and and you know, but you know one thing I I knew not to do was to be like, well, you're not going to let you talk to me that way and you're like that's disrespectful and do you better knock it off.
Speaker 5:
And you know, I just knew that this situation is different and I probably should just hold off on doing anything until I really know what's going on. And so so, being patient and allowing God to do the fixing and transforming, and so, in the process, a greater trust and intimacy has developed in my relationship with God, of course, and also in my relationship with Hailey. We, I can just trust that she's going to go to God and God is going to speak to her and he's going to help her. And there's times, you know pardon my, my, my ignorance you can help. So it's Moses who was, who was the guy that had to was Moses who was Moses.
Speaker 5:
Moses needed his arm held up.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 5:
Aaron, aaron, yes, I've just thought. You know, there's times when we have to do that for each other. You know, she can't necessarily always. You know some she's like she said so, she's tired, she's worn out, and so sometimes I have to come and hold her arm up or whatever.
Speaker 6:
You know, metaphorically speaking and just and what's powerful about that to me is like you're not like, hey, you set aside, I'm going to go in and fight all these battles.
Speaker 6:
It's like yeah you trust in me and you're excited about, like me, getting to serve God in these ways. You know it's not like, oh, you're broken, step aside. You're like, hey, you're having a hard time, let me come and help lift you up in the middle of this, and not to say that there are never times that Ron doesn't need to intercede, because, trust me, those moments happen. But, like your perspective of me, which always blows my mind, is just one of strength and you just have such a deep respect for who God created me to be that you don't wanna get in the way of that. You want to lift that up in me, and that is such a beautiful thing.
Speaker 5:
Well, and I always have to be careful to not lean towards passivity and think, oh, she's strong, she's got this, you know like. So it's a balancing act for me to know when to intervene and when to pull back and just allow her to go.
Speaker 1:
The beautiful thing about the testimony that you've shared. As Haley, as you talked about God restoring you, there were things that then were not only mentioned by you but also mentioned by Ron. Where there was restoration, then that happened for the two of you in your relationship. And, ron, when you talked about God transforming you, because there were things that needed to be different in you for you to be able to be what Haley needed you to be then we get to see Haley. You just mentioned how that became so transformative in your relationship.
Speaker 1:
And so you know I want our listeners to realize that you may be struggling with issues that look similar to what we're just shared, but they may be very different, but they're still big issues. And God is faithful to restore when we need restoration, and he restores fully. God is faithful to transform the places where we need to be transformed and he does so for his glory and with perfect goodness. And I was just reading today in Psalm 100, a reminder that I really want our listeners to hear. God doesn't just do those things in the past. He didn't just do them for Moses. He's faithful to every generation, including this one, and so he is faithful for you right now, in this generation and we are so grateful for what you've shared.
Speaker 3:
What I love about what you shared is that, as you explained it explaining that you both have submitted to the leading of the Lord then you became what each other needed, and I just I think that that is a beautiful picture of what the Lord does in marriage that as each a husband and a wife submit themselves to the Lord, they become what they need to be for each other, and so I just think it's beautiful. I think your story is just amazingly beautiful.
Speaker 6:
Well, and I know Ron has one more thing that he wants to share, because I thought this was really me and I think it alludes I mean that was just a perfect lead in Leslie to this one other thought that we had.
Speaker 5:
Well, yeah, part. I'm not gonna read all the vowels that I wrote and that we recite to each other, but the part that I'll focus on is I said to Haley and say every year, just as Jesus gave himself up for his bride, the church, so I too must put aside all selfishness and submit my will to you, my bride, as it has long been my desire to be the man that God wants me to be. Now it is also my responsibility to be the husband that you need, and what's interesting is I wasn't at a place yet to fulfill those vows when I said that, but God has equipped me to do so over time, and I'm just thankful for that. It was, and it's always good for me to go back and reread these so that I'm always reminded and questioning like am I doing this? Am I living up to this?
Speaker 6:
And I think we both made promises on that day that we could not keep, but by the power of the Holy Spirit has allowed us to honor these vows and to really fulfill his desire for us in our marriage.
Speaker 3:
And I think that's a key too to be willing to fulfill those vows even knowing that you're not able to in your own strength. And I think that's probably true with all of us. I don't even know that we had a with a very set of traditional vows, and I don't even know if we have them written down anywhere. Of course you have marriage ceremonies that you've done, that have vows written down every year, but I don't even know if we have a copy of our marriage vows. Shame on us.
Speaker 1:
Well, we're so old, we did the repeat vows. We didn't even write them.
Speaker 3:
Oh, that's fun. It has been such a joy to reconnect with you guys on this podcast and if our listeners want to catch that full story, I will note that in the show notes of the episode that you guys were on with us earlier on trauma.
Speaker 1:
Once again, we want to thank Ron and Haley for joining us. This is the Vision Driven Marriage podcast. We're dug in, leslie Davis, and we continue to pray that God will solidify your marriage.