{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Stronger with Andy Wood","title":"What If He Leaves?","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3577,"description":"Andy and Stacie Wood on the night Stacie was scared Andy would leave, what he said back, and the one idea that has held their marriage for 23 years: it's a covenant, not a contract.\nThis is a bonus episode, recorded live at Saddleback's marriage retreat. New here? Start with Episode 3, \"Are You Married, or Just Roommates?\": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq7Q2S5aq1U\nThe first twelve minutes are their story: the first week of college, the year Andy spent as a cheerleader, the 18-month breakup, the summer he told her the only way she'd be part of the church he was going to plant was as his wife, and the email she ended with two words from a Nicolas Cage movie. Then the hard part: married at 21, broke, opposite personalities, and the season when home was so miserable Stacie asked what would happen if he left. From there, Andy and Stacie walk through why God calls marriage a covenant, how a covenant is different from a contract (the phone-plan story explains it), what \"in sickness and in health\" costs when sickness actually comes, the night Stacie locked the bedroom door and Andy quoted Scripture through it, why marriage was never meant to make you happy, and five commitments that make a covenant practical: receive your spouse as a sacred gift, put God at the center, close every side door and lock the back door, work on it instead of running from it, and love, cherish, and sacrifice for your spouse above all others. Including your kids.\nWhether you're newly married, decades in, or carrying a hard story into a second marriage, this one is for you.\nMORE FROM ANDY AND STACIE ON MARRIAGE\nEpisode 3, \"Are You Married, or Just Roommates?\": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq7Q2S5aq1U\nBonus: marriage hot takes on conflict, money, and in-laws: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q45wyFL5O6k\nThe weekend message, \"Stronger Marriages\": https://youtu.be/XFandtFb3A8\nONE THING TO DO THIS WEEK\nTell your spouse the sentence Andy asked the room to say: \"You are the most important person...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/C-eg33Wmu_-0sjRGC2o2d-SFUApNY7WinuLqxMK7ukE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS83MmU2/ODAyZWZkNDg4NmM4/NGY2MDkwM2EwYzdj/NTUwYi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}