People ask this question quite a lot.

Why do we do this?

Meaning…why do we publicly share very personal details of our lives with absolute strangers? Why did we start a non-profit organization? Why do we revisit a very painful time in our lives over and over and over again?

This is why.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we have received from God.  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

See, here’s the deal.

GOD SAVED US.

And we want that to happen for EVERYONE!

He saved our marriage.

We want that to happen for EVERY MARRIAGE!

The verse above clearly shows that God wants us to praise Him for what He has done in our lives, and then share Him and His love and comfort–that He gave to us!–with others.

By sharing our story, the raw truth of how GOD saved us and our marriage, we are thanking him! We are being obedient to God’s call on our lives. We are doing our very best to share the comfort He gave us. We are looking to Him, through His Word, for guidance– trusting that this is HIS plan for us. And we believe that God’s plans for us are perfect. 

Now, I didn’t say His plans were “easy.”Nope. Not easy at all. In fact, following God can be downright difficult at times. Creating Side By Side has not been an easy venture. But we feel God’s presence in those difficult moments, and we know that He wants us to do this. 

So. We. Do. It.

HOW DO WE DO IT?

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.  Matthew 19:26

With God’s guidance and direction, we came up with the following:

Side By Side Mission 

We are guiding marriages divided by infidelity to journey from hurt to hope.

Side By Side Vision

We pray for all marriages to be Christ-centered and thriving.

Side By Side Values

(these are very important to us…they define HOW we desire to live our lives and lead the ministry)

We value:

• Christ-centered healing
• God-honoring relationship
• Judgement-free, safe space
• Biblical marriage-mindedness
• God-glorifying excellence

Do you have a mission statement for your life? For your marriage? For your business? Do you have a set of values that you strive for daily? A list of guidelines for you to gauge your day-to-day living by? If not, I highly recommend it!

Our mission statement and values are hung up in our office, so that we can measure our daily activities and choices to the standards we have set for ourselves and our ministry.

Some days are better than others. 

I share this with you, again, to explain to you why we do this.  

We want to GLORIFY GOD in all we do and say.

We want you to see, without a doubt, that Steve and Lisa are not the heart of Side By Side–GOD IS. We want you to see that WE did not save our marriage–GOD DID. We want you to see that YOU are not the answer to your problems–GOD IS. We want you to see that you are not the creator of your destiny–GOD IS.

God saved us and our marriage. HE is the reason we do this. HE gives us the strength to share our hurts and mistakes. HE provides ALL we need to do His work. (Hebrews 13:21)

He can (and will!) do all of this for you.

That is why we do this.

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