Mark McPeak at #d62012

Mark McPeak is Director of Advancement at Free Will Baptist International Missions. He is author of Grace in the Empty Spaces, a study of the one another passages in Scripture.

His topic was "Grace in the Empty Spaces of My Marriage"


Lois asked Mark, "Do you want to be right or do you want to be happily married?"

Over time in our relationship, empty spaces developed. How are you going to fill those spaces?

• With suspicion, mistrust, anger, bitterness, resentment?
• What was the critical input he was missing? 
• His wife's perspective
• She was on one side & I was on the right side
•  How About You?
• Where are you on the continuum between really good and not good?

"Being right or winning is a really stupid relationship strategy"

Maybe You . . .

• Shut Down
• Blow Up
• Are dramatic
• Are passive/aggressive
• Pout 
• Punish 
• Control 

Ephesians 5:31-32

• Our marriages are supposed to be a picture of Christ's relationship to the Church.
• We have an Enemy trying to destroy our relationships (2 Corinthians 11: 2-3)

Lois' question above led Mark to focus on his heart and then his behavior.

Mark asked this question to himself out loud, "What do you want?"

• I wanted her to be crazy about me.

What I Learned . . .

1. Sometimes we don't know what we really want (Colossians 3:1-3)
2. When we don't really know what we want, all our efforts may be for nothing
3. Some things are worth wanting--worth humbling yourself to be in a position to receive them

Grace is the oil that keeps relationships functioning well like gears in a machine.