My husband and I love to have guests in our home. Especially those who stay a few days. I try to make their room as comfortable as possible, even personally testing the bed with a little nap.
My husband takes pleasure in wowing guests with favorite and “guinea pig” recipes. In most cases, the time flies by and we’re saying good-byes with hopes to gather again. We consider our gift of hospitality a gift to us as much as to our guests.
When we were first married, as if we were one another’s guest, my husband and I treated each other the same way. I loved spending time with him and making him feel… welcomed. There were things we had to work through, but the tension and journey to agreement or acceptance usually ended up with us actively searching to find a way back to each other.
As welcomes go and time went by, through day to day life and wedding anniversaries, a few places on the welcome mat unraveled and before long, the places that were stepped on often became threadbare.
Though we’re clearly told our stay on this earth is brief, God provided us with several gifts to make our fleeting stay more enjoyable, productive, and, in some instances, simply bearable. One of those gifts is marriage.
In a 2019 Pew Research study, it was discovered that 88% of Americans cited love as their top reason to get married, ahead of making a lifelong commitment at 81%, and 76% married for companionship. However, the book of Genesis, which sets the stage for the entire Bible, made it clear God’s creative work was not complete until He made a woman to become one with the man. Marriage is God’s idea and throughout the Bible, God instructs us to treat it as a special gift.
God also informs us that our stay on earth is brief. In short, the journey’s short. Living knowing that our life and therefore marriage is a vapor is different than just living it. When we develop an everyday awareness that we only have so much time and only one shot at it, we tend to hold on to what will stand.
Savor what matters.
A psalmist wrote, “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” Ps 39:4
Without knowing much detail of what the future would hold, we entered a covenant with someone promising in some form to honor, serve, love, support, and stay united with them. Now that some time has passed, are you shortchanging them and yourself with anger, self-centeredness, un-forgiveness, apathy, and bad or sinful behavior?
This is your marriage story. It belongs to you. How are you caring for it?
I’ve compiled a 40-year long list of some tried and tested marriage tips that I pray you will put into practice and allow them to help you on your marriage journey:
Finally, unless it’s a great surprise party, don’t hide things from each other. If you’re struggling with something, freedom begins with confession. Secrecy breeds sin and sin destroys relationships.
Your marriage story can become the gift God intended for your life. People love being treated like they’re someone special. You reap the benefit as well as give lasting enjoyment to your spouse by honoring and serving one another in love.