5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Expectations in Marriage | 5 Minutes with Jesus | February 10, 2026
- God has
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- Given you an eye, a different way to live.
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- I'm particularly in a marriage relationship.
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- You can feel like, well, you don't understand.
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- I'm justified for this.
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- But honestly, when you think of everything,
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- Just as god through christ has forgiven you,
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- When you think of everything that god has forgiven me for,
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- I don't have the right to hold something against someone else.
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- But communication is is key.
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- And the first person, when you find yourself
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- Really angry, the first person to take that to you is the lord,
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- Because he understands and you get to tell him
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- The whole truth.
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- Barry and i have been married for 31 years,
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- And we've learned so much about each other over the years.
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- But what neither of us understood when we made our vows
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- On a snowy december day in charleston, south carolina,
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- Was that the bags that we had packed for our honeymoon
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- Were not the only baggage we were bringing with us.
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- You know, honestly, until you're married
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- And living under the same roof,
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- You don't really realize how different you might be,
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- How you might respond to an unexpected situation.
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- I remember we were married,
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- And i think it was the 3rd of december.
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- I should know that, but it's been a long time.
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- So our first christmas,
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- I was so excited
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- About getting our first christmas tree together,
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- And when we started decorating it,
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- I was putting on ornaments forever.
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- I thought it looked good.
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- And barry said to me, no, no, no, this is all wrong.
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- This is wrong. and i'm like, what do you mean it's wrong?
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- He said, they're not equidistant.
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- I'm like, what do you mean? no, no.
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- He said, they need to be like three inches apart.
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- And i actually thought, oh my lord, i've married a lunatic.
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- And then we had someone had given us, you know,
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- One of those ornaments to say your first christmas together.
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- Well, i picked it up and went to hang it three inches
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- Over from something else, and i dropped it and smashed,
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- And he'd just look of horror on his face, and he said,
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- What do you think this means?
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- I said, i think it means you married a klutz.
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- I mean, i'm going to drop a lot of things,
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- But i think one of the greatest stressors
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- In a marriage is money and how you both handle money.
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- I remember it was coming up on my birthday,
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- And barry and i were flying somewhere,
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- And he showed me a magazine with this italian furniture.
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- It was like a bed and side tables and, you know,
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- I mean, it was beautiful.
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- And it was like, i love this.
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- I think this would look great in the house.
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- And i said, yeah, it does, but we don't need that right now.
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- We definitely do not need new furniture right now.
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- So my sister and my mom had flown over from scotland
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- And that would happen to be at my birthday.
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- So they had taken me up for lunch,
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- And we got back from this lovely birthday lunch.
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- And i walk into the house and i walk into my bedroom
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- And there's the furniture,
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- The bed, the side tables, the everything.
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- And i honestly, i totally overreacted.
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- And all that barry saw was how angry i was.
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- But what mattered was explaining why.
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- Because the thing is, after my father died by suicide,
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- We lost so much. we lost our home.
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- We lost our car.
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- We lived in housing that was provided
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- By the local government,
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- Which was great, but things had just changed so much.
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- I've had a job.
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- I mean, obviously a saturday job when i was young,
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- But i've had a job since i was 13 years old
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- Because my mum had a very, very limited income
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- As a single mum raising three children.
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- And so i was always so careful with every single penny.
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- So when barry bought this furniture
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- That honestly to this day looks beautiful in our bedroom,
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- All he saw was how angry i was and that hurt him
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- Because his thing was, i did this to surprise you.
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- I thought you would love this.
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- What?
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- He didn't understand
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- Was how that was feeding into so much of my childhood,
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- Of thinking things could be gone in a moment,
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- And we have to be so careful that every penny.
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- I think, honestly, one of the greatest lessons
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- We've learned in our marriage relationship over the years
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- Is to talk to each other,
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- Because sometimes
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- He'll do something that kind of pushes
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- One of my buttons and i overreact.
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- And i've learned this when my reaction
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- Is out of proportion to what's actually going on.
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- There's history attached.
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- And so we've both learned to take a bit of a step back
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- And to look at things and to ask, okay,
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- How did that make you feel?
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- Why did you feel that way?
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- And then we've learned the precious gift
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- Within any relationship of asking forgiveness.
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- I love this passage.
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- And paul wrote it to the church in ephesus in chapter four.
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- Verse 31 says this get rid of all bitterness,
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- Rage, anger,
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- Harsh words, and slander,
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- As well as all types of evil behavior.
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- Instead, be kind to each other.
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- Tenderhearted, forgiving one another
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- Just as god through christ has forgiven you.
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- Now, i don't know if you're married
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- And if you are, how long you've been married.
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- But don't you think
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- That kindness is something that changes so much?
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- When i look at social media
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- These days and i, i try not to spend too much time on my phone.
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- But there's so much
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- Anger, there's so much division, there's so much blaming,
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- You know, attributing blame to someone else,
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- Which is supposed to make us feel better about ourselves.
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- God has given you and i a different way to live.
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- And particularly in a marriage relationship.
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- You can feel like what you don't understand.
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- I'm justified for this.
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- But honestly, when you think of everything,
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- Just as god through christ has forgiven you,
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- When you think of everything that god has forgiven me for,
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- I don't have the right to hold something against someone else.
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- But communication is is key.
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- And the first person,
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- When you find yourself really angry,
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- The first person to take that to you is the lord,
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- Because he understands and you get to tell him the whole truth.
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- Let me pray for you.
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- Father, i want to thank you so much that we don't have
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- To pretend to be a certain way when we come to you.
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- Thank you that just as a child is welcomed by their parent
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- When they're hurting, you tell us to come as we are.
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- And, lord, i want to pray right now
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- For anyone who's dealing with conflict within a relationship,
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- Perhaps in a marriage relationship
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- Where they just feel like the other person doesn't understand.
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- Lord, would you teach us?
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- I mean, holy spirit,
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- We've read in the word says, if anyone lacks wisdom,
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- Let him ask and you will gladly give.
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- So, lord, will you do that for us today?
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- Where there's misunderstanding or miscommunication?
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- Would you give us your holy, godly wisdom to understand
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- What's going on so that we can learn to be kind to one another,
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- And to let go of anything that's destructive?
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- We ask this and the powerful,
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- Wonderful, beautiful name of jesus.
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- Amen.
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