Why More Money Does Not Lead to a Happy Married Life
Inside: How I envisioned our happy married life was not coming to fruition.Is this why God warns us about the effects of more and a godly marriage?
Today I’m sharing in a series 28 Days of Godly Marriage at Angel Penn’s site. I don’t know Angel well but her ministry for marriage is evident. Our marriages are being attacked and only with God as the third strand can we overcome and remain in the covenant for marriage long-term.
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The American dream is what our country has been built on. It’s the ideal that every U.S. citizen should have equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.
This same dream though can make a happy married life unhappy. The desire for more can also have an effect on a godly marriage.
A few years ago, my husband was on the cusp of becoming a successful business owner. His company was growing and honestly, he was making a lot of money. However, our twelve-year marriage was having a whole host of problems.
While he felt all the stress and time away from our family was establishing and securing our future, I became envious and felt like I was competing for his time and love.
Fights became commonplace and the raising of kids both physically and spiritually was placed on me. The increase in stress and responsibility led my husband to begin drinking as a way to deal with all of the tension.
Not the Happy Married Life
How I envisioned our happy married life was not coming to fruition. This was not how I imagined a godly marriage.
Our relationship became strained because my husband was desiring worldly success while I was desiring more of his time and energy. We couldn’t meet eye to eye.
Is this why God warns us about the effects of yearning for materialism and worldly accomplishment?
(1 Timothy 6:10, NLT).
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Here’s the thing, it gets tricky because God wants us to work hard and provide for our families. He wants us to work as though we are working for Him. God also wants us to work not only for the present time but also making good financial decisions which will affect our future.
To read more follow me to Angel’s site.
“What are you striving for: more stuff or God?” That’s a great question to get to the heart of who you are serving.
“When both spouses grasp this, they will understand that money is a tool: to care for our families and to help spread the Gospel.” – This is such an important lesson for both spouses to understand and agree upon. Money, in and of itself is not bad, it’s when it becomes a higher priority than God and our spouse/family then it is a problem. Great post Julie!
External things never give us the internal satisfaction we do desperately want. My husband and I have learned this as well.
When my husband and I see money as a tool, things go so much smoother!
Always so grateful for your honest, open posts that allow us readers to learn from your experiences! Thank you for writing so transparently about an issue that effects so many marriages!
I found this to be extremely helpful! We are entering in to unknown days as my husband switches careers. Money is the source of my anxiety. Will there be enough? Will we become greedy? You are right, God must be first! In all we do, God must be first!
This can be a hard area to bring under God’s control. We tend to think that all we need to keep us safe in this world is money. With money we can do soooo many things…but we forget who all things come from.