30Mar16

Proverbs 19:14 ESV
House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

Marriage is a wonderful thing! Are you blessed by God through your marriage? When I first got married, and sadly for the first little bit of my marriage, I thought I was hot stuff. I thought I was the "catch." Whenever there would be a disagreement I would think, "well, she's just lucky to have me." I thought a lot about myself and what she could do for me. For a lot of the couples I get to talk to this is a real problem. When we married our spouses we were thinking about what they were going to be bringing to us, about what we were going to be inheriting through the marriage, not what we were going to be doing to make their life better for the rest of our lives.

Luckily, I was blessed with a prudent wife who saw through my crap to the man I could be and wanted to be. She didn't, and doesn't, need me to be her savior because she has a Savior already. She doesn't need me to define her, because God has already told her who she is. She doesn't need me to love her, because she is fully loved by a greater source. She is the catch. She's the one who is forced to put up with me. It took me years to realize it. It took a lot of failure on my part and a really hard look at who I was as a person to understand that I don't deserve her at all. I don't possess her. She is the greatest blessing God's ever given me. I didn't earn her.

Once we recognize that about our spouse, about how precious they are, and get over ourselves, then we can start to appreciate out marriage. Once we appreciate our marriage, then we can rest in that relationship. Once we are able to rest in that relationship, we can be happy because we have chosen to value what we have right in front of us. Love isn't a feeling... it's a choice. Will you choose to recognize the blessing you've been given and love your spouse today? Or do you think you somehow deserve better? Enjoy your blessing from God.