Marriage is a covenant: When you got married, you vowed, before friends, loved ones, and God, that you would love and cherish this person until one of you should die. And, no, you should not be praying for that someone to die... that's just wrong. Take time to renew that commitment to yourself from time to time. My husband and I took a "marriage covenant" class at one point in time and one of the things I remember from this Biblically based study is that your spouse is a gift from God.
Think about it... how many lonely people are out there in the world? God gave you this person to cherish... when you receive a precious gift from your children, do you tear it apart or throw it on the ground and trample it? No, you cherish that gift... you display it for all to see. Treat your husband the same way. Think of the good qualities, those things that he does (or perhaps he used to do) that just make you smile and tell your friends aboout those things. Shine a light on the beautiful aspects of your man and shove the not so lovely under the rug.
My joy comes from the Lord: It is NOT my husband's responsibility to make me happy. It is great when that happens but I shouldn't walk through life waiting for or expecting it to happen. No, my joy... my peace... my overwhelming happiness comes from the Lord. Keep your relationship with God foremost in your life.
In the previously mentioned covenant marriage class, the other memorable thing that came out of it is the pyramid affect... the analogy of your marriage being a three sided pyramid. Think of a pyramid... God is at the top and you and your spouse are at opposite anchor points. The closer each of you get to God, the closer you draw to each other.
Again, you can only do your part. You can't force your husband to read his Bible or pray. You can't even force him to go to church (ok, you may try but he's going to resent you and push away from God). Lead by example... Keep your relationship with your God fresh... let the joy of the Lord shine through you and pray, pray, pray. Only God can reach through to your husband and He may or may not choose to use you to do the reaching. In fact, God will most likely use someone else.
I used to get frustrated because I could say something to my husband a thousand times but let one of his friends say the same thing and all of a sudden, it's the greatest idea or thought he's ever heard. Don't get upset... just be thankful the thought made it through and move on.
Don't neglect your time with God because you need that Word in your life every day. Not only that, you may have little eyes watching you... they watch how you respond and they see how important your God is to you. Make sure to involve those little ones... take them to church with you, take them to VBS, say bedtime prayers with them and read them Bible stories. When you go on field trips, remind them that God made the beautiful sunset, the delicate butterfly, and the magestic elephant. Be sure that they are being nurtured in God's love as well as your own.
No comments:
Post a Comment