I love my husband

Ephesians 5:22-28; Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

A marriage is more then just two people living together having relations... it is more then two people  sharing their lives together doing similar things with each other. It is two people, under God's blessing, committing their LIVES (not a period of time) to each other with no strings, prenuptials, or other legal mumbo jumbo....

There have been many times in the last 16 years that Mike and I could have split up, even a few times that I wanted to leave for good. But I knew in my heart that wouldn't have been the right thing to do. I'm sure when we got married we were totally unprepared for the lives God had laid before us. But did we quit? did we leave or bail on each other? No. Why?

Well, to us, marriage is not a commitment before men but a commitment before God himself. are we qualified to break that commitment? I do not think so. So, what if the marriage turns out to be more then we bargained for? What if I decided that Mike was not the right guy for me or if we "fell out of love"... what then? Well, under the commitment I made before god that is just too bad.... If I want a happy marriage then I need to work on things. Do things and take steps to rectify the marriage I let slip away... things didn't go bad from one particular moment in the middle of the night while we were all sleeping. Things got worse, we went our separate ways, over time... without even noticing most likely... So it takes work and effort to fix the problems, to mend the hurt, to set right the wrongs. Relationships fail for one main reason... two people stop working at things. It takes two to tango as the saying goes... So, it took two to let the marriage go down hill it takes two to fix it up again.,... It is fixable, no matter what the problems, if both people work at it and give God the center of the marriage place where HE belongs!

I do not mean to be preachy here. I just mean to elaborate my reason for writing this today... I love my husband!

Mike is not perfect bu the is wonderful. No matter what we have been thru, all the ups and downs, he has stood by my side with loving arms ready for me to be held in. There have been times when, as I said, that I wanted to leave, to run away from our marriage. Now that I type that I am horrified at that fact, but it is true. There have been times when his lack of understanding upsets me so much. The way he handles situations is not only much different then the way I would but it confusing to me when he explains his perspective.

What Mike is is caring, thoughtful and loving. He is patient and understanding of all my faults. Like today, with it being so hot..., all the stress I have been under, the kids not really obeying, Adam having his own teenage issues, and the house looking a mess I was very under the weather mood wise today. He came home, gave me fresh picked berries (which he hates btw!) and made me fresh homemade berry jam (that he finds disgusting to eat btw). He is wonderful and kind and caring. He forgives me of my faults daily, sometimes moment by moment... He is the man that God has brought to me and he has worked his way into the very depths of my heart.

So today I challenge you. If you are married or engaged or dating, ask God to show you the love that Ephesians talks about. If you do not have that love, seek it, work for it, pray for it. If you do have it, praise God. Tell your loved one how much you appreciate them for all they do out of love for you.

Read Ephesians together and challenge your relationship to it's words...

Tell your spouse you love them and mean every word of it. :)

Trisha