What has God revealed to me about Love in marriage? I have thought about this all weekend. Sometimes it is not easy for me to put what I want to say down on paper. I have many thoughts that float through my head like little clouds and Christy has given me the challenge here to gather them all up and put them into order.
My husband and I have been married for 14 years. Throughout those 14 years I have grown to love my husband with a love that goes beyond the world’s view of love. I see the world’s view of love as something you can fall into one minute and out of the next, which is based on feelings and emotions. These feelings and emotions can often lead to discontent, bitterness, anger and sometimes divorce. God has revealed to me through his word in the bible that love is an action and a choice and He made the first step. The bible says that God is Love (1 John 4:8) and that “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). My husband has been great in taking the lead in this. There are many times when I think he should be angry with me and he isn’t and he gets up to serve me when I know he is tired, and he never brings up any past wrongs of mine, ever and he does all this with joy and not begrudgingly. He takes the word seriously as it says in Ephesians 5:28-31, In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man is actually loving himself when he loves his wife. It has been a learning and growing process over these past 14 years, but I try to do the same for him and you know what I have experienced through doing this? I have experienced joy instead of sadness, satisfaction instead of discontent, happiness instead of anger, and most of all Love instead of hate. Through the Lords teaching I have learned to love my husband beyond my feelings. So this is what God has revealed to me about His love in marriage; God's kind of love is a choice that you make on the basis of what God said, and then act on it in faith until it becomes a reality in your spirit, soul, and body.
This week, as we are all focusing on love and what we can do for the ones we love, I challenge you to go beyond the flowers or box of chocolates and think about God’s love, and how you can put that into action towards your spouse. Think about doing an act of service you know they would appreciate, or lift them up with words they might not hear from you that often, or decide to hold your tongue even if they make you angry. As the Lord says, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully (2 Cor. 9:6). If you sow love, then love will abound. May you have God's bounty of Love this week and always.
Love,
Melissa
