At the beginning of our Spiritual Renewal Week, our wonderful Sr. Adult Pastor Dr. Steve Anthony challenged our seniors to give $100 in support of the services. I am not a senior adult.  Neither is my bride.  While she is three months closer to receiving a social security check than me (Talking point #1 for the marriage counselor: Sharing that one’s wife is older than you could be construed as a bad idea), I also thought it would be a good idea to support our revival with $100.

As Karla was preparing dinner for our evangelist, I said to her, “Hey, I’m going to write out a $100 check for revival tonight.”  Maybe the noise of the pea pods frying (Talking Point #2:  Serving pea pods to guests and a finicky husband is literally in bad taste) was distracting or possibly the aroma of baked macaroni and cheese caused confusion, but in any event she heard, “YOU need to write out a $100 check for revival tonight.” (Talking point #3: Failure to communicate).

To further complicate matters, Karla arrived a tad late for the service (Talking Point #4: The importance of arriving early), so she was sitting in the back of the sanctuary and I was sitting in the front (Talking point #5: The importance of sitting together in church).  Following the receiving of the offering (FOLLOWING THE OFFERING!!), I received a text from her (Talking point #6: No phone usage in church unless it is an emergency or to check the score of the World Series game), stating that SHE HAD GIVEN $100 for the revival expenses.  Did I mention that she sent this text FOLLOWING THE OFFERING (Talking Point #7:  Never write in ALL CAPS in reference to your wife)?

So the Princes gave TWO $100 checks for the Spiritual Renewal Week (Talking Point #8: Handling finances), and now we have to pay for a marriage counselor too (Talking Point #9:  Airing the families “dirty laundry” in an all church blog and Facebook).  For all the wonderful outcomes of our Spiritual Renewal Week, my bride and I are a casualty (Talking Point #10: How the preacher/husband might slightly embellish a story) and that is how Spiritual Renewal Week Ruined my Marriage.

While it is true, we both gave a $100 check toward Spiritual Renewal Week, it is not true that this caused weeping and gnashing of teeth or an appointment with a marriage counselor.

Why tell you my troubles (real and imagined)?  It’s a simple reminder that while our Spiritual Renewal Week with Dr. Scott Daniels (my favorite preacher) may be over, let’s not let the revival end in our lives.  Pray that God would work in your home this week.  Invite a friend to church this Sunday.  Expect great things from the Lord whenever we gather!  Let’s live into verses like Psalm 85:6:  Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Let’s continue to pray for Spiritual Renewal in our lives.