We're Sean and Candace Tambagahan and this is the Mission of Marriage Podcast! Have you ever been at a crossroads in your marriage, wondering if there's any hope for restoration? We've walked through some rocky patches ourselves. Our marital journey has taught us about perseverance, grace, and the infinite love of God. And it's these lessons we strive to share with you, to help navigate the trials and tribulations of marriage. We don't claim to have all the answers, but we do have some tools and insights that might just help you on your journey. . . . . . . . The Mission of Marriage Podcast, hosted by Sean and Candace Tambagahan, provides insights for a stronger marriage through a Christian lens. Inspired by real conversations with Christians navigating marital challenges, we aim to infuse hope and value into every union through a biblical perspective.
We're Sean and Candace Tambagahan and this is the Mission of Marriage Podcast! Have you ever been at a crossroads in your marriage, wondering if there's any hope for restoration? We've walked through some rocky patches ourselves. Our marital journey has taught us about perseverance, grace, and the infinite love of God. And it's these lessons we strive to share with you, to help navigate the trials and tribulations of marriage. We don't claim to have all the answers, but we do have some tools and insights that might just help you on your journey. . . . . . . . The Mission of Marriage Podcast, hosted by Sean and Candace Tambagahan, provides insights for a stronger marriage through a Christian lens. Inspired by real conversations with Christians navigating marital challenges, we aim to infuse hope and value into every union through a biblical perspective.
Speaker 1:
My name is Sean, I'm Candice and this is the mission of marriage podcast.
Speaker 2:
We talk about a Christian perspective on having a better marriage. So we're going to muscle our way through this. This is Candice's first podcast and even on the way over here, I asked her like are we talking to each other? Are we talking to the camera? Are we doing both?
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
The answer was yes. So I've done a few things like this, been on video, been on camera. Candice, not so much Correct, but we both decided that starting a podcast on marriage was not only going to be beneficial for our church, but hopefully it's going to be beneficial for you guys, which is why we're doing the mission of marriage podcast. And so, Candice, why? Why? This was, I think, originally on your heart, Like why did you want to do this?
Speaker 1:
So God put it on my heart. I mean, that's the only way I can explain it. I just felt like this passion to help people in their marriages. I think, just knowing what we've gone through and knowing how we've overcome things, and just after talking to so many people that are struggling in their marriage, I wanted to be able to help people and give them some practical things that we've done that's helped us.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and and even like doing a marriage podcast. I don't know, I feel. I don't know how you feel about this, but I feel kind of weird about it. It's like, oh, we are the people that have the answers.
Speaker 2:
And like that's totally not our heart at all, Like it's not like we have arrived and figured everything out, but there are some things that I think we have figured out. Yeah, candice and I were talking about this a couple of weeks in preparation for this. I don't think that there is anybody that we know personally in our lives that has a better marriage than us.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And I don't want to say that as like boastful like oh, look at us and look at our marriage Like we recognize that there's several factors at play. Not like we've done everything. We're very lucky.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Like like, we're very like, we're very privileged and blessed with the marriage dynamic that we have and and I don't think like in us doing this podcast and saying, hey, just do everything we do and you're going to have exactly our marriage. I don't think it works like that. But I think, even though we are very lucky and blessed with the marriage that we have, there are some things that we have learned and tools that we've added to our tool belt. Yeah and yeah.
Speaker 1:
But I think when people hear like oh, you're doing a marriage podcast. Well, like you guys like kind of have tension sometimes, or you guys picker, it's like yeah, we're not, we're not perfect and we don't saying that we are so.
Speaker 2:
And with us. You know I was raised around a lot of hypocrisy in the church and I didn't. I never wanted to be the hypocrite. I never wanted to be the guy that puts on the front. This is like the perfect life that I have Just be like me. And then behind closed doors, you see all the skeletons in the closet. When Candice and I gave our lives to God like we really wanted to be transparent with who we are and so when people who are in our lives they see us, they see us like there we're a real marriage.
Speaker 1:
We have we picker and well, and I think that that's where it comes in is we don't hold back, like we just kind of like we are who we are and we don't like oh, don't, don't say those things in front of people, wait till we go to the house. It's like no, we just kind of were who we are, no matter where we are.
Speaker 2:
So I think a lot of that has to play with not only our relationship dynamic, but also there's personality traits. Like you have personality, I have a particular personality and we can clash, but we're also very complementary, almost opposites, like complementary opposites, yes, and how we are and I think there is something to be said of like God's design for marriage is almost to be like that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and so, yeah, going with that, were you going to say something else?
Speaker 2:
No, okay so with us being real people. We have real struggles, we have a real marriage, but when we're talking to some of our friends and some of the people that we've counseled and mentored in the church, we come up with or we come across a lot of the same types of struggles and the same types of issues. And so what are some of like? Maybe just name a couple of the issues that you see that we've dealt with and kind of counsel people along with yeah, I mean just a lack of communication and off the top of my head.
Speaker 1:
I'm sorry, I was kind of caught off guard.
Speaker 2:
So communication.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, communication their personal identity outside of each other. So their identity in Christ?
Speaker 2:
that seems to be an issue being able to be themselves and not just that kind of goes into the identity, though yeah, so communication, having their own personal identity, and we'll probably do like a whole episode on just that, because this is, and pretty much everything that we're going to be talking about is probably stuff that we've learned the hard way. It's not like we study this stuff and then have just applied it. We have learned so many things the hard way and the reason that we have the best marriage that I know of personally with the people that we know at least that's what I feel is because I think we've had also the worst marriage.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think that we have gone through. So when we talk to people and they're like, oh, we're going through this, and I'm like, oh my gosh, that is like super simple, but it doesn't feel simple because I get it. When you're going through it, it doesn't feel simple but we've gone through a lot so we can relate to a lot of people. I feel like we have gone through a lot more than other couples have for sure.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, and that's even an episode is like when giving up is the option or when we just kind of throw in the towel too early, and I think that a lot of couples really just throw in the towel too early and that sounds unsympathetic and like oh, you just don't know my situation.
Speaker 2:
We hear that all the time, like my situation is so unique that you can't judge that what I'm doing is anything other than right, because you don't understand me. And it's like well, maybe, like I don't know. I just see that there's very few situations in which I'm like I could see a separation be legitimate.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I mean and there's many times where that happens, but the amount of situations is pretty few I think most of the issues can be worked out if you apply yourself, and so this kind of like with the title the Mission of Marriage.
Speaker 2:
There's a double entendre there. On the one hand, this is a Christian podcast, so I'm assuming I'm talking to the church, like I don't really have a whole lot of advice outside of what the scripture, what I've learned from God through the scriptures. I was talking to a friend of ours that you know and he has since become a Christian, but before he was an atheist, he was in, or at least an agnostic, and he was struggling in his marriage. And I told him I said, look, man, I could give you advice, but just know that Jesus is coming with me. Yeah, any advice that I have in marriage and I think what you guys are going through can be restored, but the only advice that I have is coming from a scriptural framework. And so when we talk about the mission of marriage, there's that double entendre of living a missional life and being on mission together, being on mission together, but then also seeing marriage itself as a mission.
Speaker 2:
And so, like I just told you what the podcast name was, like, what do you think about when I told you what it was called?
Speaker 1:
I was thinking being on mission together and then mission of marriage, like yeah, so kind of exactly what you said. I'm just gonna reiterate what you just said so being on mission together, but also marriage being a mission itself. It's not like things are fixed overnight. It's like you're on this long mission in your marriage together to accomplish something together.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah. And when you think of something like living on mission or having a mission to do, it doesn't seem like something that's just about entertainment, right and so like. Your marriage is not about your feelings, it's not about these, it's not just about attraction, it's not just about your happiness, it's not just about us feeling like we're in love. Because what happens when the attraction isn't there anymore, or when you're used to the person, or what happens when those feelings, those romantic feelings, kind of dissipate and the honeymoon phase is over? Are you still gonna be committed to this thing, because it's bigger than just those things.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And so that's what I think about when I think of the mission of marriage, and then I think in the second episode we're gonna talk a lot about what the mission is like a theological understanding and framework for marriage. I think that is huge and a lot of people, if they have no mission, if they have no theological framework that's unifying them or binding them together, then it's I don't know. I think it's just easier to throw in the towel.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, okay, last question In people watching or listening to the podcast, what is your hope Like? What do you think the end result is gonna be? What are you hoping is like people are consuming the content they're listening? What are you hoping that they lead with?
Speaker 1:
I'm hoping that it's not just gonna be like, okay, how can I fix my spouse? I'm hoping it's gonna be like, as they're listening and they're seeing, that it's more than, like you just said, than just you guys making each other happy. It's about your purpose here on earth and what you're, the spouse that you're with, that God gave you like where are you guys going? What is the end goal here? And so so I'm hoping that when people listen to that, that their perspective is gonna change, especially if they're in a struggle in their marriage, that they would get their eyes off of that individual struggle and focus on the bigger picture of where they're going in life together, in unity.
Speaker 2:
Amen, my hope is on the same page. I just hope that people are blessed by the podcast in their marriage. I pray that marriages would be restored. I pray that people that are struggling in their marriage and think that there is no hope, that they're beyond repair, that they should just throw in the towel, that they would see hope and that, no, it's not too late, that if they're this side of eternity, that there is still hope that God is a redeeming God. He's a reviving God. He will resurrect dead things and I've seen him resurrect dead things not only in our marriage but in other people's marriages.
Speaker 2:
So there is hope and I want people who may be struggling at that intensity They'll leave with some glimmer of hope, not necessarily a checklist of things that they have to do in order to have the perfect marriage, because there is no such checklist and even if there was, we wouldn't follow it because we're sinful by nature and we have this flesh and life happens. But my main hope is that people that maybe stale or stagnate in their marriage or maybe it's beyond repair they think it's beyond repair or they can never rekindle what they once have, that no, there is hope that you can have a fantastic marriage, even after coming out of something terrible in your marriage. So that's what my hope is.