Marriage Interview with Rachel Olivarez.

Introduce yourself like we are having a cup of coffee together. What kind of coffee/tea would you drink?

Hello. My name is Rachel Olivarez. I'd be happy to enjoy a cup of Oprah Chai Tea Latte with you! ☺️I've been married to the love of my life, Sonny for 17 years and we have two amazing sons, Noah(14) and Jonah(12). We love to travel and have a heart for marriages! Our prayer is that God will use our marriage to minister to others.

What is your favorite thing about being a wife?

My favorite thing about being a wife has changed over the years. It used to be just having someone to share life with. And although that is still a major reason, I've learned that there's so much more to it. I read somewhere that our marriage is our greatest ministry. All the things God commands us to do can be done by obeying him in our marriages. Let's be honest. Sometimes the hardest person to love is the one closest to us who knows us and our weaknesses the most. But when we love like God commands, we make ourselves grow. And while we're thinking, "If only my husband would change this thing about himself," God works in our hearts and changes us and our thinking instead. It's really quite fascinating the way that works. Especially since you both end up changing for the better. So, I guess the short answer for what my favorite thing about being a wife is that God uses me to minister to my husband and him to minister to me, so that he can use us both to minister to other couples. One of our greatest desires is to see other marriages succeed.

As a wife how do you show Christ love to your husband daily?

This is a tough one, because unfortunately, I don't always do it. But the way I show Christ's love to my husband is by making sure he is always respected and by consciously making an effort to meet his needs. We both have different love languages, so it has often been a struggle for me to speak his love language. I certainly won't do it if I don't make it a priority. I often find myself thinking he hasn't met my needs, but I have to remind myself that it's not just about me. And the funny thing is that when I do my part, my needs are also met through my obedience.

What are some ways you communicate with your spouse?

Speaking of love languages, some of the ways I communicate with my spouse is of course through our conversations. But Sonny and I have not always been the best communicators. We both try to avoid conflict, so in the beginning, we would sometimes have days where we wouldn't really speak to each other. Or one of us would hold on to something we had against the other. Over time, we realized that someone was going to have to make the first move. So we set our pride aside, and did our best to resolve our conflict quickly. Now, we try to never go to bed angry.

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What's a piece of advice you would share with another wife?

Some advice I'd share with another wife is something I've heard at our favorite marriage conference, The Weekend to Remember. A woman becomes the kind of wife and mother God has designed her to be by ordering her life according to God's priorities, not her own.

1)Grow in her relationship with God first. 2) Respecting and supporting her husband second. 3) Teaching and training her children third.

Everything else comes after these and must also be prioritized so they never take precedence over the first three. I would also say again that we must remember that it's not about us. We can often be selfish and think that it's the other person that needs to change. Quite often, the person who needs to do the changing is us.