Pastor Perspective with Alastair Sterne

Such a good question.

And again, I can only offer it based off of you know, having pastored people in that situation.

Um, my mom is in that situation.

Uh, and, and fortunately scripture guides us on this.

And I, and I think there's reason to have hope and there's reason, um,

not to,

maybe the first thing I say is don't let that become the center stage.

Like your, your marriage, even to someone who doesn't share your belief, um, the flourishing of your marriage, loving one another well, caring for one another, pursuing a lot of united goals, even if you don't have a united belief, like all those things are still possible and deeply important.

And I think sometimes because faith is such an important matter, the matter, we can let it become an ultimate thing in those sort of marriages that it then Rather than bringing someone closer to you, it increases the gap because it's the thing you're always talking about and there's pressure.

And you don't mean to add pressure.

It's just the thing that you care about, right? And so I recognize that's a burden that you have to carry.

But love your spouse.

Enjoy your spouse.

Go on dates.

Focus on all the things where you are united, you know.

But on the faith front, fortunately, Paul talks about this in Corinthians.

I don't have the verses off the top of my head.

So you're going to have to go look it up and read it for yourself.

But he answers this question really explicitly.

And the question that's being raised for him is, well, if I have an unbelieving spouse and I became a believer, like, should I leave? And he says, no, stay.

You know, if they want to leave, let them leave, but you stay.

And he says, here's the reason.

You don't know, but your faith, might be the thing that makes them holy.

And if that weren't the case, and this is what I love about what he says, your children wouldn't be holy, but as it is, your children are holy.

Now that's really interesting to me, is he's saying your faith is a big enough covering for your children while they learn and discover and eventually have faith of their own.