Where Abundant Life Lives
We (Benjamin and I) have been up since 3am!!!!! All the exclamation points are from the coffee!!!!!! Today I’m sharing a story I wrote for Help Club for Moms as we read the “Love Your Husband Challenge” reading plan on YouVersion. If you are a mom- any kind of mom in any season of life - go to helpclubformoms.com to subscribe for great encouragement, and if you are a wife who would like to read the reading plan, click here! Love you guys! See you tomorrow!
My husband and I got married later than most of our friends. Before we even met, we had both established careers for ourselves and then left those careers to move from our perspective states in the US (Texas and Tennessee) to Africa for missions. I was already several years into single-handedly raising a South African child when we started dating. It is an understatement to say that we are both independent, strong-willed people! The weekend before we married, a sweet couple who had been married for years sat us down and spelled it out for us: “The day you get married is the day you realize how selfish you are.” We laughed about that nerve-wracking moment again and again as we have found how true it is!
Marriage is a God-designed invitation to love and be loved in a more raw and intimate way than any other relationship in this lifetime. The way Jesus first loved us was to say “No” to Himself so that God the Father could say “YES” to us. Jesus left heaven and entered humanity to walk through depravity, brokenness, and experience the same desire and temptation you and I do. He didn’t want to be tempted, mocked, tortured and hung on a cross. But even more than that, Jesus wanted you and I to have a path to unity with God. He said "No" to Himself to say "Yes" to relationship. That’s where abundant life lives!
Mama, the same is true in our marriages. In the very big and the very small things, we have an opportunity to say “No” to ourselves so we can say “Yes” to our marriage. Even though continuously cooking and cleaning can feel exhausting to me, I often make a double portion of dinner before 8am so I can get the kitchen cleaned early, knowing how important it is to my husband to come home to a clean, peaceful house. And there’s leftovers for lunches! I’ve also been practicing taking some of my fears and struggles in our marriage to God first before bringing them up to my husband. I know continuous relationship talk can feel overwhelming to him. Often, I realize I don’t even need to talk to him about it. I just need to pray for my heart and pray for God’s favor and blessing over my husband and our marriage!
Is there anything in your life you can say “No” to this week in order to say “Yes” to your marriage?
This one is just because he’s so good looking.