However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. -- Ephesians 5:33
Learning to love my husband, truly love my husband, was something I never imagined I would need to do. We were married because we loved each other, right?
The answer is simple: no.
How could we truly love one another, we didn't have Christ in our heart. It is not possible to truly love someone when you don't truly know what love is. Love is not a feeling, it is an action that was set forth on a wooden cross, a redeeming action that saved man kind. This action was set forth by our Lord and Savior and is something that I learn each and every day.
Respect was new to me as well. I was always taught that someone must earn respect before they are given it. I cannot tell you the number of times I thought this was true in my life. My marriage was no different. If my husband would do something that I did not like, would hurt my feelings, I would, and still at times do, turn my heart cold and refuse to love him. I simply didn't want to.
What would I have done with my life it Christ had decided that I was simply not good enough to love, if a sin that I had in my life was too great that I was not worth saving? Thankfully I do not have to worry about this "what if", but at the same time, I must love my husband in that fashion. I must love him simply because I am loved.
This realization has opened up my soul to allow my husband in regardless of whether or not I believe "he deserves" my love or not. Because, truth be told, none of us are good enough for the all consuming love of the Father either, but He freely gives it and we must freely give it too.
Watching Christ take a hold of my husband has been something that has opened up a new vessel of loving for me as well. He is a new man. A man reborn in the blood of the Savior. He is washed clean and he is walking towards an eternity with the Father. The love that he pours out now, the love he shows me now, solidifies the love that Christ has for us, for His bride's.
Watching as my husband is making a decision and the first place he goes is prayer, it's amazing. My husband loves food, loves coffee, and for the first time in His life He has surrendered every desire, every urge over to Christ to take hold of. He cannot make a decision now without the love of the Father, and it's inspiring to a wife who longs to respect and love her husband. I am able to give him more because Christ gave His everything.
I now know what true love is, I experience it every single day. It's not the love a mother feels for her child, it's not the lust a man and woman feel for one another when they are first married--it's a sacrificial love was magnified and modeled by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The answer is simple: no.
How could we truly love one another, we didn't have Christ in our heart. It is not possible to truly love someone when you don't truly know what love is. Love is not a feeling, it is an action that was set forth on a wooden cross, a redeeming action that saved man kind. This action was set forth by our Lord and Savior and is something that I learn each and every day.
Respect was new to me as well. I was always taught that someone must earn respect before they are given it. I cannot tell you the number of times I thought this was true in my life. My marriage was no different. If my husband would do something that I did not like, would hurt my feelings, I would, and still at times do, turn my heart cold and refuse to love him. I simply didn't want to.
What would I have done with my life it Christ had decided that I was simply not good enough to love, if a sin that I had in my life was too great that I was not worth saving? Thankfully I do not have to worry about this "what if", but at the same time, I must love my husband in that fashion. I must love him simply because I am loved.
This realization has opened up my soul to allow my husband in regardless of whether or not I believe "he deserves" my love or not. Because, truth be told, none of us are good enough for the all consuming love of the Father either, but He freely gives it and we must freely give it too.
Watching Christ take a hold of my husband has been something that has opened up a new vessel of loving for me as well. He is a new man. A man reborn in the blood of the Savior. He is washed clean and he is walking towards an eternity with the Father. The love that he pours out now, the love he shows me now, solidifies the love that Christ has for us, for His bride's.
Watching as my husband is making a decision and the first place he goes is prayer, it's amazing. My husband loves food, loves coffee, and for the first time in His life He has surrendered every desire, every urge over to Christ to take hold of. He cannot make a decision now without the love of the Father, and it's inspiring to a wife who longs to respect and love her husband. I am able to give him more because Christ gave His everything.
I now know what true love is, I experience it every single day. It's not the love a mother feels for her child, it's not the lust a man and woman feel for one another when they are first married--it's a sacrificial love was magnified and modeled by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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