God loves Israel, the descendants of Abraham (Ezekiel 16) and His chosen nation. Jesus wanted to gather the nation like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings to nurture them and to keep them safe (Matthew 23:37). We may not be of Jewish descent, but we can all be God’s adopted children by surrendering our life to Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:5; John 3:16-18).
Serving as a loving spouse to our mate helps us to understand the Trinity’s preference for this nation. We all have an innate need to be loved, but also to feel like we matter, to be treated like a person with value, and to know that our mate cherishes us above any other person, vocation, or hobby in their life.
Appreciating each other, thanking each other for our acts of service, giving one another our undivided attention when we chat, spending special couple time together, and not taking each other for granted, encourages us to serve each other more selflessly and with more enthusiasm and heart-felt feelings.
This selfless love fills our home with positive conversation, attitudes, emotions and focus. We look forward to hearing our mate’s car in the driveway, his/her steps coming down the hall, eating a meal together, sharing a sporting event or movie on TV, etc.
Remembering that we are both human, have good and bad days, feel tired and frustrated, or are so pre-occupied with our own pursuits that we forget to nurture each other at times all give us patience and compassion for one another.
God’s Word provides us with a blueprint of the kind of love that God inspires in our marriage (1 Corinthians 13; Philippians 4:8). These concepts may not come naturally for us, but we certainly can learn them, and incorporate them into habits with a few moments of intentional planning each day.
We actually melt inside when our mate smiles at us, we yearn for an unhurried kiss, their creativity and uniqueness inspire us, we could listen to them talk all day long, we admire their character and service to God and integrity, we even love to hear their out of tune singing when they praise our beloved Father God (Song of Solomon 2:14).
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for teaching us to have Your agape love for one another. Remind us that taking one day at a time, one incident at a time, easily forgiving each other, reading or listening to speakers with Godly counsel on marriage, and studying Your Word together all increase our intimacy in our marriage.
Help us to live as an example to our children of a couple that is devoted to our relationship, as well as committed to our covenant to one another. Remind us that divorce is a terrible action that robs us of the security, which we built together over the years. It makes our children insecure about their own relationships, and it wounds our soul deeper than we can ever imagine.
Thought for the Day:
Cherishing and dedicated behavior melds married couples together into one flesh, increases our enjoyment of one another’s company, gives us more patience, and helps us not to resent our mate’s behavior that may hurt our feelings or frustrates us; our relationship is an example for other marriages, and makes them want to learn more about what we have learned over the years.
- Song of Solomon 1:3, 1:15, 4:10, 5:10, 5:16
