Choose Your Partner Carefully

[Choose Your Partner Carefully]( Current Teaching Series [You Make Me Crazy]( [Listen to Today's Broadcast]( [Choose Your Partner Carefully]( By Rick Warren — 05/20/2021 [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( “The righteous choose their friends carefully.” Proverbs 12:26 (NIV) If you’re supposed to choose your friends carefully, you should be even more careful about choosing your life partner. And notice that you do get to choose. God leads, guides, and gives you guidelines. But ultimately, who you marry—and whether you marry—is your choice. However, many people believe the myth that there is only one right person for them. That’s very romantic, but it’s just not true. It’s not biblical, and it’s not even logical! If there were only one right person for each person in the world, one person making a wrong decision would break the chain for everybody else. Let’s say I’m supposed to marry a woman named Susan. Instead, I marry Kay. So then, Susan might marry somebody else, who was supposed to marry somebody else, who was supposed to marry another person! Do you see how the apple cart is upset for everyone on the entire planet? There are many people God would want you not to marry. But there likely are quite a few other options that could fall within his will for your life. And in those cases, it’s your choice. You can follow your preference. There’s another myth that many people believe: Love alone is reason enough to marry. I frequently talk with people who are planning to get married. And sometimes I look at them and think, “There’s no way.” The family background, spiritual foundation, or personalities aren’t right. They don’t have the same amount of energy or ambition. They don’t even have the same values and goals. But they “love each other.” Loving someone does not mean you should marry that person. God may not tell you who to marry. But he does give you principles that will help you make a wise decision. In tomorrow’s Daily Hope devotional, we’ll go over a list of traits to avoid in potential partners. There are few better gifts in life than a good spouse. Relying on God’s guidance can help you make a wise decision. [PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>]( Talk It Over - Have you believed the myth that there’s only one right potential life partner for each of us? How does it make you feel to know God gives people a choice? - When have you seen friends or family marry just for love when they really weren’t compatible? What have you learned from them? - When have you seen friends or family wisely choose a life partner? What have you learned from them? The post [Choose Your Partner Carefully]( appeared first on [Pastor Rick's Daily Hope](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( [Get the You Make Me Crazy Study Kit when you give a gift to support Daily Hope]( You probably have a relationship that could drive you crazy if you let it! Whether it’s a boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, sibling, parent, or co-worker, a "crazymaker" can really make life difficult. Discover how you can do more than just survive, and actually thrive in these hard relationships with Pastor Rick’s, You Make Me Crazy study kit. This six-session DVD and workbook study shares biblical wisdom to help you navigate the kinds of relationships that drag you down and leave you feeling drained. [LEARN MORE]( [Complete Audio Series (Purchase)]( Includes 8 full-length messages from Pastor Rick's series You Make Me Crazy. [LEARN MORE]( [Series Summary]( Message 1: Six Keys to Peace in Relationships Message 2: Who's Pushing Your Buttons? Message 3: Resolving Conflict Message 4: Finding the Love of Your Life Message 5: Breaking Free from Abuse Message 6: Escaping the People Pleaser Trap Message 7: Keeping the Crazymakers from Making You Crazy Message 8: How to Keep Your Marriage Growing [PLAY TODAY'S BROADCAST]( Pastor Rick Warren [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Linkedin]( Enjoy today's devotional? Listen to Pastor Rick’s daily audio teaching at [PastorRick.com]( Did someone forward this devotional to you? [Subscribe to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Devotional.]( As the founding pastor of Saddleback Church with his wife Kay, Dr. Rick Warren leads a 30,000-member congregation in California with campuses in major cities around the world. As an author, his book [The Purpose Driven Life]( is one of the best-selling nonfiction books in publishing history. It has been translated into 74 languages and sold more than 50 million copies in all formats. His book [The Purpose Driven Church]( was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the century. Rick also founded [The PEACE Plan]( to address five global issues—spiritual emptiness, self-serving leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy—through the power of ordinary people in the local church. You can listen to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope, his daily 25-minute audio teaching, and sign up for his free daily devotionals at [PastorRick.com](. © 2021 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission. You can unsubscribe by clicking the link below. Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, 23182 Arroyo Vista, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688, United States