E150: Prioritizing your Marriage over your Kids

Here are Mark's notes for this episode: 

1.  People often say that, your spouse is forever, but parenting is just for a few years. That is more true than you can know. 
2. Your marriage is the parenting machine. The two of you together form the leadership and culture of your child’s lives.
3. Marriage works on you as a person. The better you become as a person, the better you become as a parent. 
4. The best thing you can do for your kids is love their mom well. Love their dad well. 

How to prioritize

1. Prioritizing begins in the heart. Keep feeding that relationship.
2. Maintain date nights, or date experiences, that keep you connected.
3. Tell your kids that your spouse comes first. 
4. Never disrespect your spouse in front of your kids. Our kids can be confused about their life already. If they feel like you are on separate teams, you will lead them to confusion. 

Signs that you are not prioritizing.

1. When you come home, you are excited to see your kids, but you’re not excited to see your spouse.
2. You gladly sacrifice time and money to serve your kids. But you hate doing it for your spouse. 
3. You no longer make love to each other consistently.

Your marriage is at the foundation of your entire life. If you build your marriage. It will support everything to do with your life. If you do not build your marriage, it will threaten everything you do with your life.