“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a
life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant
offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1,2
It has been fourteen weeks since the Sunday/Thursday
Marriage Classes begun. We have just wrapped up our journey through the study, Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. The entire focus is asking ourselves this
basic yet foundational question, “What if God designed marriage to make us holy
more than to make us happy?”
Is that a great question or what? Too often we hear a spouse talk about how
they are not happy in their marriage.
That they don’t understand how to be happy like it was in the beginning.
They are waiting for their spouse to do
something to bring back that spark, that tingle of love. Do you see the focus?
Do you see the shortfall in that path of thinking? It’s all about ME!
Instead, the focus of our marriage should be taken off of
the horizontal and fixed to the vertical. We should be using the challenges,
joys, struggles and celebrations of marriage to draw closer to Him and to also
grow in Christian character. We should
be allowing God’s Hands to wrought our marriages in holiness.
As we closed our study this past week, the author, Gary
Thomas, challenged us with a prayer.
Instead of us waking up each morning asking ourselves, “Am I happier
today than I was yesterday?” he suggested that we pray a prayer to truly give
us the focus we need to keep our marriages God-Centered. This is what he
suggests we should pray, “Lord, how can I love my spouse today like
he/she has never been or ever will be loved?” Did you catch that? Is that a prayer you can take ownership of?
I truly believe that this is a prayer God would love to
answer. Just take some time to imagine
how your marriage may begin to change. We won’t be overtaken by our
disappointments when our focus will be on what we can do for our spouse.
“Lord, how can I love my spouse today like he/she has never been or ever will be loved?”
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