Welcome to the Awesome Marriage Podcast, a place for honest conversations about marriage and how to have the relationship that God has designed for you.

I am your co-host, Christina Dodson.

On the show will be our host, Dr. Kim Kim, Kimberling and Nell Smith.

To engage with the Awesome Marriage podcast, use the hashtag Awesome Marriage.

This week on the podcast, we've been doing a mini series on three ways to leave and cleave. And today is our third and final episode,

and it's way number three, which is to depend on your spouse spiritually. So Dr. Kim,

what does it mean to depend on our spouse spiritually? I think the model I've always had is the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve and God.

And, you know, they were the only three people there.

They didn't have to deal with some of the things that we've been talking on here,

boundaries with in-laws, because Adam and Eve didn't have in-laws.

The only people in the whole people never had anything.

They have to deal with that.

But I think that's a picture that God wants.

He wants a husband and wife connected spiritually with him at the center.

And so what I think, you know, depending on the family of origin you grew up in, you know, if you had good parents that were, I know what's saying you have to be spiritual leaders.

But if you had parents that were real spiritual leaders, you had a dad that really understood that. You had a family that you prayed together and prayed for each other

and that spirituality was a very important part of your family of origin. Then what you may be

a little harder not to continue to have some of that dependence there. And I think what it is, sure,

you still pray with

them, you can pray for them, but the first thing needs to be between you and your spouse. And so when

there's a need, you guys are praying about that together, when there's something that concerns

you both, you're praying about that together. If it's about other family members, you're praying

...