Compatibility

I stumbled on this fantastic blog today, I think through Jonathan at Inversion or Michael at Fellowship. This is the part that affected me the most, but I'd encourage you to read the entire thing.

The Truth About Marital Compatibility 

5 Questions for Singles to Ask When Seeking a Biblically Compatible Spouse:

1. How do you know he or she willingly submits to godly authority?
   
   Ladies, if he does not submit to godly authority, he is a dangerous man. Period. Men, if she doesn’t submit to godly authority now (as a single man, that’s not you by the way), she is the kind of woman Proverbs warns you to avoid. 


2. How do you know he or she is teachable?
   
   If he or she likes to argue, they are more concerned with being right than being made righteous. When you think you’ve won an argument in marriage, you’ve actually lost. Marriage is about humbly maturing, realizing you have much to learn for the rest of your lives.


3. How well known and involved is he or she in Christian community?
   
   It’s easy to put on a good front when you are attracted to someone and motivated to marry. If he or she is unknown in community, they are unknown to you. Others need to vouch for the person’s character, integrity, and faith.


4. How does he or she speak of others?
   
   If he or she is critical, demeaning, or flippant in their attitude and words now, it will happen in marriage. Soon, you will become the brunt of their anger and pride.


5. How does he or she respond when confronted with their sin?
   
   When someone tries to hide, misrepresent, blameshift, excuse, or rationalize their sin, they have a distorted view of the Gospel. Because of Jesus, we can confess sin (I John 1:9), repent (Rom. 2:4), walk in the light (Eph. 5:8-9), and be reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:17-21).

My hope today was to have gotten out to run, but it’s been raining since Sunday. So my second choice was to go on the step mill, but that didn’t work either—I had to run errands in Cool Springs, and the CSY doesn’t have any step mills, or even any steps. I went with the next best option, I figured, short of the treadmill: 30 minutes on the elliptical. My goal was to get at least 3 miles in, and I succeeded.

• Mile 1: 9:57
• Mile 2: 9:18
• Mile 3: 9:23

I would have liked for the third mile to have been faster than the second, but I was doing the varied workout and minutes 19–22 were rest minutes, so they were easier. I was trying to not take it easy by keeping my strides per minute to between 180 and 190, but it definitely still kept the distance down. Oh, well, all is not lost, since I did complete 3+ miles in that time.