The fifth episode of The Diaspora Marriage, a Voice of Covenant series on building a Christ-centered home when you are walking between two cultures.

In this episode, Micheline Nelson teaches on the long middle of marriage: the years past the babies and the honeymoon, when the careers are demanding, the parents back home are aging, and the romance has gone quiet. Drawing on Scripture and years of walking alongside long-married couples, she reframes the season almost nobody talks about:

1. Do not mistake tired for broken. A quiet season is not a dead season, and weariness is the mark of long, faithful love, not failure (Galatians 6:9)

2. Prayer for the exhausted. On the nights you have no words, the Spirit himself is already interceding for your marriage (Romans 8:26)

3. You were never meant to do this alone. Find the older couples who have walked the road ahead of you, and let them in (Titus 2)

Plus what our culture gets right and wrong about the long haul of marriage, two Haitian proverbs for endurance and community ("dèyè mòn gen mòn," behind mountains there are mountains, and "men anpil, chay pa lou," many hands make the load light), and one challenge to carry into your week.

For long-married couples, especially Haitian and Francophone Christian families in the diaspora, and for anyone in the quiet, unglamorous middle years, where covenant is quietly forged.

Learn more at ecorelationships.com.