Welcome to Growing Spiritual Oneness, a four-part series for couples to grow closer to God and to each other.
Whether you’ve recently committed your life to Jesus for the first time, made a recommitment, or just want a new way to grow spiritually together, this series is for you!
It’s designed to encourage you on your faith journey, giving you practical ideas and tools to grow in spiritual oneness as a couple. Throughout the four sessions, you will learn how you can experience more of the help, hope and joy God has for you, your marriage and your family.
Making the Most of This Series
Just like with physical exercise, the benefit will depend on the amount of focus and effort you give to it. Here are four ways to make the most of this series for your Spiritual Oneness Journey.
1) Watch the Sessions Together
This series is taught by FamilyLife couples and is designed for you and your partner to watch together, using the discussion questions to guide your conversations during each session. It’s a way for you, as a spiritual unit, to discuss and decide on the best next steps for your spiritual journey together. The sessions are about 20 minutes long, so block out half an hour to watch and reflect on the content together.
2) Use the PDF Handout
Under each video, there is a button (and link) to download the PDF Handout for each session. You may want to print this out and use it to take notes, recording key takeaways and the steps you decide to take as a couple.
3) Pace Yourselves
We are all at different places in our spiritual journeys — individually and as a couple. None of us have arrived and we all need to grow. So if you feel overwhelmed at all with where you’re at spiritually, that’s normal. God will meet you wherever you are. We all have a long way to go, so pace yourselves. Watch one session a week (or a month), allowing time to try different spiritual practices and to figure out what works for you as a couple. Remember: spiritual oneness isn’t a destination. It’s a journey.
4) Take Steps!
As with any wisdom we hear, it only changes our lives for the better after we apply it. So be intentional. Decide as a couple what spiritual practices you want to weave into your lives. Then schedule those times together, try the practices and keep each other accountable. Touch base once a month to talk through what’s helping you grow and what needs adjustment or renewed effort. And remember: you don’t need to try everything at once. Pace yourselves. And when you start to see the difference it’s making, celebrate that as a couple with thanksgiving!
Enjoy the journey. Together!
Session One – Surrendering to God Together
Keeping Christ at the centre of our lives isn’t something we can do in our own strength. We all need help to be faithful and fruitful and to love each other like Jesus does.
In this session, Brent and Céleste Trickett share their experience of learning to surrender their lives to God, day after day, so they can draw from His strength to bear good fruit and love each other well. They introduce some practical ways you can live in that place of surrender daily, together.
Session Two – Praying Together
When couples pray together regularly, it brings immense joy and life to their marriage and family. So why don’t more couples do it? Though prayer is so vital to growing in spiritual oneness, many couples struggle to find time or learn how to pray with one another.
In this session, Rennier and Jeaneth Hernandez share how they finally learned how to pray together and how it has blessed their relationship. They offer some practical tips to help you develop your own rhythm of praying together.
Session Three – Reading the Bible Together
Reading the Bible regularly is an integral part of growing as a follower of Jesus. And it’s usually done solo… but what if you tried reading the Bible together?
In this session, Sheldon and Valerie Dean share how they’ve grown to love reading God’s word together, and how they have found their minds, hearts and marriage renewed and strengthened by God’s truth. They offer a simple outline and some practical tips for how you as a couple can find spiritual nourishment from reading the Bible together.
Session Four – Serving Together
Though it might seem counterintuitive, sometimes what a couple needs in order to grow in spiritual oneness isn’t more time spent alone together. Spiritual oneness often grows exponentially when a couple spends more time serving others together.
In this session, Keith and Stephanie Dillabough share about their love for serving others together and how it has brought great joy and teamwork to their relationship. They offer biblical wisdom and some practical tips to decide how you may want to serve together to grow more in spiritual oneness.