Monday Feb 03, 2025
Ep 242 You and Your Marriage: I Thought This Would Make Me Happy with Chelsea Damon
What a great conversation today on Living a Legacy Life with Chelsea Damon, author of the book: I Thought This Would Make Me Happy, How to Fight Less, Forgive Faster, and Cultivate Joy in Your Marriage.
Married or not, this podcast is for any serious follower of Jesus. Why? Becasue we are all prone to find our joy and satisfaction and identity in anything but God and yet we get disappointed, disenchanted, and discouraged—maybe all in the same day and at the same time—because we forget that we were made to find our rest in Him, period.
Chelsea knew from an early age that she wanted to be married and she always had someone to lean on. What she didn't know was that leaning too hard on one person, even a great husband, didn't help her know who she was nor flourish as God's child. Married young, she was determined not to be one of those divorce statistics but it wasn't until the Lord showed her that she had made marriage an idol that she began to feel the freedom to be herself and help her relationship flourish instead of trying to control all the outcomes.
Get your free Self-Awareness Guide HERE (how to know how selfish we are!) And, no, not a good idea to take it for your spouse!
Chelsea will be hosting a giveaway of this great book all week long. Be sure to comment to be entered. Even if you aren't married, you know someone who is and might benefit from a gift of her book.
Chelsea Damon is not only the author of I Thought This Would Make Me Happy: How to Fight Less, Forgive Faster, and Cultivate Joy in Your Marriage, but also, Together with Christ: A Dating Couple's Devotional: 52 Devotions and Bible Studies to Nurture Your Relationship. She is also the author of chelseadamon.com, a website where moms and wives are encouraged in healthy, Christ-centered lives and relationships.
Damon and her husband Josh met while attending college, where they grew in their faith and dated for three years. They were married on the windy coast of Washington in 2013. Throughout their dating and marriage relationship and into parenthood, they've been learning what it means to live loving God and loving others in a self-love world. Today, the Damons have three biological children, are foster parents, and spend their time looking for new places to hike and explore beautiful South Carolina.
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/damonchels
Some gems from our conversation:
- A good way not to fight is to begin the conversation with: "I'm not mad about this but . . ."
- I was fearful to be pegged as a doormat, so I went out of my way to over control.
- We are quick to identify the faults in another but give ourselves a little more grace than we are willing to give.
- I had an unhealthy need to have "that person" in my life to make me find my place in the world.
- I was loving to get something back and that isn't way love is supposed to work.
- I needed to change where I find my security—from a person and our relationship—to God and my place in his family.
- It's okay to make yourself a little uncomfortable to show the love of Christ to those around me.
- We need to take a good look at ourselves instead of judging how another could improve so that we are getting our needs met.
- I had to learn the skill of speaking up and thinking critically without living in the fear of destroying the relationship.