Beyond Family: Finding God’s True Calling for Your Marriage

Sandy and I believe wholeheartedly that God gives each marriage a mission. Sure, you can have multiple passions, and that’s fine. But the mission God designed for your marriage? In most cases, there’s just one at any given time.

This mission goes beyond raising a family—it’s deeper than that. Consider pastors and their wives. You’ll often find they’re working together within the church, both devoted to a shared purpose.

Now, that doesn’t mean each person’s role looks the same. Each of you may have different roles, but the mission remains unified.

For example, a pastor might be leading the church while his wife serves in the women’s ministry. Their paths may differ, but they are working toward one purpose: helping others grow in Christ. Plain and simple.

I can’t tell you what God has in store for your marriage—that’s a journey for you and your spouse to take together. But as for Sandy and me, we’ve known for years that Inspired Marriage is our calling. Every time we share parts of our story, people tell us we should be writing books and speaking.

God has confirmed this mission repeatedly over the years, yet we kept pushing it aside.

We would start working on Inspired Marriage, only to fall back into our usual routines after a few months. I even had the chance to speak at five events in 2018 and thought that would be the breakout year for sharing our story. But when things got tough, I backed away.

You can’t back away from God’s purpose without feeling empty, no matter what else you accomplish.

Two years ago, I launched The Customized Ride, a custom car media company that’s grown to 350,000 followers and over 150 million video views. I’m grateful for that journey—it took a lot of hard work. But there’s still a part of me that feels empty.

I believe The Customized Ride will play a role in our future, yet I know our ultimate calling is to help marriages.

That’s where Inspired Marriage comes in.

Now, I’m back to writing, and we’re on track to release our first book in mid-2025. I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Looking back, I see that if we’d gone all-in years ago, we wouldn’t have the story we have today. At that time, the main story was that God healed me from addiction almost 16 years ago, which is powerful. But the journey since then? That’s been our story in full.

We’ve walked through challenges, raised two kids—a 12-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter—and said goodbye to all of our parents. My dad and Sandy’s mom both went home to be with the Lord in 2022, just three months apart. That was a tough season for us all.

With everything that’s happened, I’m rewriting our book from scratch. We had over 10,000 words written, but our story has grown, and it’s time for a fresh perspective.

When God healed me from 19 years of addiction on December 26, 2007, He whispered to me that one day we’d help marriages. At the time, I couldn’t see how that would ever happen, especially when addiction was taking such a toll on our marriage.

Then, in 2012, we launched an idea called the 90-Day Marriage Challenge, which ultimately became Inspired Marriage. God gave us that name, and it just felt right.

For years, we’ve known this was God’s call on our marriage. Now, with the Inspired Marriage podcast launching in February 2025 and our book on the way, we’re stepping fully into that mission.

We challenge you to consider what God has called your marriage to. Sit down with your spouse and ask the tough question: what’s the purpose of our marriage beyond family? Maybe you’ve known for years, or maybe you’re about to uncover it right now.

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Chris Benton

I am co-founder of Inspired Marriage. I went through 19 years of addictions until God healed me Dec 26th, 2007. The first 5 years of our marriage was hell because of my addictions. With Sandy's patience, I was able to allow God to work in me and we have been growing spiritually together ever since! Oct 5th, 2023 was 21 years of marriage and it's been an inspired one!