Are our expectations actually hurting our marriages?
When we come into marriage, most of us bring a whole list of expectations—some we talk about openly, and others we just assume our spouse should automatically know. But when we start measuring each other based on performance, we end up trading God's original design of selfless love for a continuous wrestling match over control.
In this message, we take a deep dive back into the garden in Genesis 2 and 3. Before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve lived in complete, unselfish devotion—they weren't trying to pull value out of each other, but woke up every day eager to bring joy to their spouse. God created them to be completers. But after the fall, fear crept in, shifting relationships from completers to competitors.
We so easily slip into conditional love: "If you meet my standards, then I’ll be the spouse you want." But that isn't the kind of love God designed for us, nor is it how Jesus loves us.
We explore what it looks like to surrender our expectations to God and begin treating our spouses with the same selfless, sacrificial love that Christ showed us.